The Prophecy of Nine
by BlackWolfRises
Summary: The armies of Ninjago report to our favourite Ninja that there have been a series of attacks on the mainland. When the ninja go to investigate, they embark on a journey that will lead them to meet new friends, enemies, and discover an ancient prophecy that will change history as we know it forever.
1. Chapter 1

A.N: Thanks to everyone who submitted OCs! I'm really sorry if I couldn't use yours, but I only really need three. Anyway, the OCs I am using are:

**Jayde Rosewood, Queen of Nature, 18 years old (She belongs to bookworm108)**

**Heather Regina Chito, Queen of Air, 19 years old (She belongs to janinaharm)**

**Leah Kersey, Queen of Water, 18 years old (She belongs to xInkblotx)**

**Maurelle Nightshade, Queen of Shadows, 52 years old (She belongs to me)**

**And Ayesha Nightshade, Maurelle's daughter, 17 years old, Princess of Shadows (She belongs to me)**

Disclaimer: I don't own Ninjago

**_Lloyd_**

From the day I was born, I have always considered myself as weird. I mean, seriously, how many people have the guy who tried to rule Ninjago for a dad? How many people are the green ninja? How many people have a mum that left them and came back like, 10 years later? I'll tell you how many. One. And that's me.

I can tell you now, though, the day we met the Princess of Shadows, my perception of weird was changed forever. Anyway, I'm probably getting ahead of myself here. Lets just go back to when the rest of the ninja, Nya, Sensei Wu and I first got the message.

Jay, Kai and I were sitting on the Bounty playing Fist to Face 2, while Zane and Cole were training outside, Nya was fiddling with the ship's controls, and Sensei Wu was meditating. I think Kai was kind of mad at me, because I was winning. He kept 'accidentally' hitting me, even though we were on the same team.

Suddenly, there was a deafening crash on the main deck. The three of us rushed out to find everyone else already there crowded around two Ninjago soldiers dressed in yellow and blue. "Are you alright?" Nya questioned, while helping the two men up. The first one seemed to regain his bearings and notice that he was surrounded by ninja. "You must be the ninja who saved Ninjago a few months ago!" He exclaimed. "Our armies have been looking for you for days! We are in desperate need of your help!"

"Why is that? Is there something wrong?" Sensei Wu questioned. The second soldier snapped back into reality, and began to speak in a dazed, yet panicked voice, "T-There are t-too many of t-them…" He trailed off, and then slumped to the ground in an unconscious heap. Jay and Zane rushed to help him, while the first soldier began speaking again. "We were just standing guard at the border of Ninjago, as usual; you know, to keep an eye out for any trouble coming towards the mainland. Then, about an hour ago, we saw a strange army marching in from the North. They were dressed in black and red, and they had strange animals with them." He explained shakily.

I decided to intervene, "What kind of animals?" I asked. They couldn't be as bad as the Serpentine, or the Stone Army, surely. "There were these huge elephants; except they weren't elephants. They were bigger, and had six tusks that curved low enough to be about half a metre from the ground. They were pitch black, with glowing red eyes, and red markings. The army also had these huge dogs, or wolves. They were also black, with red eyes and stripes." The first soldier enlightened.

I had never heard of anything like that before, and I'd never seen an army that dressed in black and red. But when I looked over to Sensei Wu, he was simply pacing back and forth, with his steely grey eyes narrowed. "Sensei," Cole began, "Do you know anything about this army?" Apparently I wasn't the only one who had noticed Sensei's uncharacteristic behavior. "Yes," he voiced, "I know where this army comes from. I just can't reason why they would launch an attack on mainland Ninjago. These uniform colours are those of the Shadow Empire; a large island North–West of Ninjago. They-"

"Wait a minute!" Kai interjected, "What Shadow Empire? I've never heard of that place!" Suddenly, Nya jerked her head up, and gasped.

"I think I've heard that legend before!" She exclaimed. "Thousands of years ago, before the Overlord and The First Spinjitzu Master were even born, Ninjago was an enormous continent; almost three times the size it is now. Back then it was called Advaya. The ruler of Advaya, a king named Jedrek, had four daughters; each one with an elemental power. The eldest had control over air, the first of two twins had control over water, and the second had control over nature. The youngest daughter had the most unusual power of all; power over the shadows."

"After a few years, the king had four weapons forged from pure silver, suited to harness elemental energy; one for each of his daughters. The eldest would obtain the Gauntlets of Air, the twins would have the Bow of Nature and the Bo Staff of Water, and finally, the youngest would have the Twin Daggers of Shadow. Sadly, soon after he had the weapons forged, Jedrek died of a rare illness, leaving his daughters orphaned, seeing as their mother died giving birth to the youngest."

"As the four girls grew older, the youngest and the eldest were constantly arguing. Soon, short squabbles turned into fistfights, and eventually, a war that would last decades broke out between the two of them. The entire land of Advaya was politically divided into two, half of the population siding with the youngest girl, and half siding with the eldest. The two twins were devastated, and didn't know what to do to end all the fighting between their sisters. So eventually, they devised a plan, and agreed that the Water Elemental would pretend to side with her eldest sister, and the Nature Elemental would side with the youngest."

"In doing this, they managed to bring their two sisters to the exact centre of Advaya, and taking them by surprise, forced all four of the Platinum Weapons together. The result of the sudden channel of all four elemental energies combining was a massive explosion, which was so powerful that it split Advaya into five different islands; Ninjago, which was not inhabited until a few decades later by the Overlord and the First Spinjitzu Master, The Kingdom of Air, which was a small island South-West of Ninjago with an entire city of clouds above it, The Territory of Ocean, two tiny islands South-East of Ninjago with a huge underwater system located underneath them, The Realm of Nature, a fairly standard island North-West of Ninjago covered in thick layers of forest and greenery, and The Shadow Empire, a huge island North-East of Ninjago with a mountainous, hilly landscape."

"Each daughter was made the Queen of their respective lands, leaving Ninjago uninhabited. And so, each Queen's descendants ruled their land, and over centuries, all four kingdoms eventually decided to put the past behind them and become friendly towards each other and Ninjago once more. But, since that day, there has never been a reign when every kingdom had a woman in charge at one time." Nya finished with a contented sigh.

"Yes," Sensei Wu continued for her, "And it is prophesized that when all four kingdoms have a Queen as their ruler, five new elements will combine with them, and save the entire divided lands that were once Advaya from a great evil. This prophecy has been named the 'Prophecy of Nine', because it involves nine elements. "

"Okay, that all makes sense," Jay intruded, "but if the kingdoms all made up, then why the heck is the Shadow Empire attacking Ninjago?"

"I think that is what Sensei Wu was confused about in the first place." Zane clarified, earning a nod from Sensei.

"Well, maybe we should just go to the ruler of the Shadow Empire, and ask them why they're attacking us." I reasoned. I may be a lot younger than I look, but hey, I still have good ideas sometimes. Occasionally. Okay, not a lot, but still! "Are you mad?" Kai yelled, "If they're attacking Ninjago, what do you think they'll do when we show up in their territory?" Zane and Cole nodded in agreement. Then my good ol' Uncle Wu decided to stick up for me. "Lloyd may have a valid point," He began, "We should make it clear, though, that we mean them no harm."

After a few moments of contemplating whether to argue with him or not, Kai huffed, and mumbled something about getting ready. Well, I guess that's Kai for ya! Nya simply shook her head at her brother's antics, and walked back into the ship's control room to set course for the Shadow Empire. I just sighed to myself. This was going to be a long trip.

A.N: Wow! Four pages! Anyway, I hope you guys are enjoying the story so far; I was planning to make this chapter longer, but then I decided not to keep you guys waiting, and cut it a bit shorter. Now, for some word and name meanings:

**Advaya – United**

**Jedrek – Strong**

Remember to review, guys!


	2. Chapter 2

A.N: Hey guys! Thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter! In this chapter, I'm going to introduce the Princess of Shadow. Hope you like it!

**_Lloyd_**

Looking back on it, I guess I should have been pretty scared, flying to the Shadow Empire; I mean, for all we knew we were flying to our deaths. But at the time I was actually really excited. At that time, I had never actually left Ninjago itself, and I was ecstatic to finally be seeing new places, and meeting new people.

Caught up in my thoughts, I was startled when I heard Jay yell. "We're here!" he cried from the deck of the Bounty. I ran out of the room I now shared with the other ninja, almost tripping over my own foot on the way out. Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw out there. Stretching out before me was a huge island covered in gigantic mountains, which, by the way, were taller than any mountain I had ever seen, and instead of being topped with snow, these mountains were barren and dry, and yet they still looked intimidating, but beautiful at the same time.

What really snagged my attention, though, was the towering castle conveniently located on what looked like the only large, flat piece of land on the island. It was made entirely of what looked like black marble, and was decorated with highlights of silver details. But before I could further examine this foreign landscape, the ship came to an abrupt stop, throwing me forward, with the only thing stopping me from falling over the edge and hitting the unforgiving ground below being the railing on the edge of the Bounty.

"Hey," I complained, "What was that for Nya?"

"Sorry Lloyd, but we shouldn't just barge in there on the Bounty. For all they know, it could be a warship coming to fight them!" She called back apologetically from the control room. Sensei then decided that we needed to walk into the castle on foot, but in our ninja suits, just so that if things got messy, we would be able to defend ourselves.

We all scampered off the ship, eager to feel solid ground beneath our feet after several long hours of flight. Now that we were actually on the ground, the castle looked a lot scarier than it had on the Bounty. Its gates loomed over us, beckoning us to enter. So, with Sensei Wu leading us, we strode single file up to the two guards at the gates, who conveniently now had their swords pointed at us.

When we got pretty close, Sensei Wu motioned for us to stay back, while he shared a whispered conversation with the guards. A sudden look of realization crossed their faces, as they nodded once, and motioned to the watchtower on the left of the gates for them to be opened. The gates then pulled open outwards, without making a sound, and Sensei indicated that we could follow him into the castle.

As soon as we got into the actual building, I was shocked. I had never seen such a massive palace before. In fact, I had never seen any palace before. Its interior resembled its exterior; black marble with silver details and highlights. A woman who looked about 30 walked up to us, and asked in a polite tone, "Are you here to see the Queen?"

"Yes, we would like to speak to whoever is in charge, please." Sensei Wu requested in a careful voice. The woman simply nodded and beckoned for us to follow her. I just looked at Jay, who shrugged at me, and followed our teacher.

The woman led us to an enormous set of black doors, carved intricately with silver. I assumed this was the throne room. "Now," the woman began, startling me out of my current inspection of the doors, "The Queen herself is very ill right now; she is in a critical state that our doctors cannot mend. Therefore, she is unfit to rule the Shadow Empire, and while she is unwell, her daughter, Princess Ayesha will be running the kingdom in her place."

Sensei Wu simply furrowed his eyebrows, and asked, "How long has Princess Ayesha been in charge?"

"As of now," The woman began, "Three weeks." So it was definitely her that sent the army, not her mother. Suddenly, the doors flew open, on their own accord. "I sense the princess wishes for us to enter." Zane stated. And without another word, we all steeled our resolves, and entered.

The first thing I noticed in the throne room was the throne itself. It was pitch black, and looked as if it were made of obsidian rather than marble. It wasn't too detailed, which was good, but it definitely wasn't plain either. Carved on the head and arms of the throne was some kind of ancient writing in some kind of other language. The second thing I noticed in that throne room was the girl sitting on the throne.

She had wavy, black hair that reached her mid-back, and currently hung loose, tumbling down her elegant shoulders. Her skin was a light toffee colour, and she looked quite tall; taller than Kai and Cole, probably. On further inspection, I also noticed that she was quite physically strong; I could see her wiry muscles were tensed, as if awaiting an attack. The Princess was clothed in a loose, slightly transparent black shirt with a black lace up undershirt beneath it. Her legs were covered with a pair of baggy, black pants, which glimmered silver on the hem. The most noticeable thing about this girl, though, were her eyes. They were pitch black, and yet they showed so much expression; and more than that, they showed raw, untamed power. There was something about this girl that showed she was a force not to reckon with.

She looked nothing like I would have anticipated a princess to look like. I was expecting a small, blonde girl with blue eyes wearing a pink dress and a tiara. Okay, maybe not that extreme, but still. My inspection was cut short, when suddenly, a strong, tenor female voice cut through the silence like a knife. "You wished to see me?" Only then did I realize that it was her voice. Again, I had expected a high, soprano voice. Sensei bowed to the ground, and the rest of us took the hint and followed his example. "Princess Ayesha, of the Shadow Empire," He began, "the people of Ninjago ask that you withdraw your armies from our lands. Please, whatever we have done, I'm sure, can be amended in some way?" He reasoned.

The Princess furrowed her eyebrows, and leaned forward, placing her elbow on her knee, and moved her chin to rest on her closed fist. Her dark eyes darted back and forth between Sensei Wu, Nya, the other four ninja and I, as if inspecting us for traps. Finally, she spoke, "I have not sent any of my troops to Ninjago, or anywhere, for that matter." I could see that Kai was getting mad.

"Oh yeah? Prove it then! 'Cause there is an entire army attacking us back home!" He yelled. The Princess simply narrowed her unnerving, obsidian eyes, and spoke three words, "Come with me."

As she rose from her throne, I could immediately see that she was indeed extremely tall; definitely taller than Kai, Cole, Jay and maybe even me. Probably not Zane, though. Just another perk of being a nindroid, I guess. She strode past us, and out of the double doors that we had passed through not so long ago ourselves, leaving us to follow her. She lead us through a series of twisting corridors, until finally, she stopped outside a colossal building labeled as 'Zilla Stables'.

Then she turned around, and let out a long sigh, as her face broke into a half smile. "Thank goodness that's over!" She exclaimed, "I hate being in that throne room all day…" She trailed off, sighing again. To say I was confused would be a massive understatement. "Is it just me, or are we missing something here?" Cole asked. Apparently I wasn't the only one who was a bit weirded out by the Princess' behavior. "Oh, sorry," She apologized, noticing our confused stares, "It's just that whenever I'm in that throne room, my mother can see me from her room, and she expects me to act like her all the time."

I knew what she meant. When I was at Darkley's, I was always expected to act all evil just because I was Garmadon's son. But when I turned out not to be nearly as evil as anyone else thought I would be, the teachers just decided to expel me, so that the school's reputation wasn't diminished.

My memories were cut short when Princess Ayesha's voice rang out again. "Hey, are you coming or not?" As I snapped back to reality, I realized that she had already started walking into the 'Zilla Stables' with the rest of the group trailing behind her. "Uh, yeah, I'm coming!" I called out, and jogged forward to catch up with them. "Tell me," the Princess began speaking again, "What kind of animals did this army have?" Sensei Wu stepped forward.

"According to our armies, there were sizable black wolves with red eyes and stripes, as well as large elephant-like creatures with six tusks." He informed.

"So tell me," She spoke again, "How could I possibly have sent the 'elephant creatures'," She made air quotations with her hands, "when they are all still in here?" And with that, she swung open the double doors to reveal what looked exactly like a stable, but much larger, and instead of horses or dragons, it was inhabited with the same creatures described by the two soldiers. "What?" Jay asked incredulously, "That makes no sense! Unless someone else had these Zilla creatures wit-"

"Impossible." Princess Ayesha began with another smile, "Zilla are specially bred for the armies of the Shadow Empire. They are not found anywhere else in the world, and are unobtainable otherwise."

Now I was really confused. If the Princess had all the Zilla in the world kept in her stables, and they were all right here in front of us, then who the heck was attacking Ninjago? And why would they purposely use the animals and colours of the Shadow Empire? "Oh, and those 'wolves' you were talking about are the Ethelwulf. They are also creatures of the Shadow Empire, and are kept in the Ethelwulf Den just that way." Princess Ayesha stated, pointing to the left.

Sensei Wu bowed his head once in apology. "We are sorry for inconveniencing and accusing you, Princess. We will take our leave n-"

"Wait!" She spoke urgently, "I need to find out who is impersonating my army! Let me help you!" Then Kai decided to speak up.

"No way! Missions like these are way to dangerous for women! Think abou-" He was cut off as he found himself pinned to the wall of the stable, with two twin daggers pressed to his throat. "Care to say that again?" the Princess growled, with a glint in her eye, as if daring him to go on. "N-no Ma'am-m…" Kai stuttered, looking genuinely scared.

Princess Ayesha sheathed her daggers in a hidden belt that I hadn't seen before, and turned to face us again. "As I was saying," She began again, "Can I come with you? I hate being trapped in this palace. It's like a prison. I have no freedom…" She confessed. I looked over at Sensei Wu, who seemed to be contemplating this. "You may travel with us for now. Just make sure to pack lightly." He finally decided. The Princess' whole face lit up with joy, "I'll just get my mother's advisor to take care of things while I'm gone!" And with that, she ran back inside the castle to pack her things, no doubt.

Within just five minutes, Princess Ayesha was back where she left us, holding a small black backpack. "Wait… What was your name again?" Jay asked the Princess. Honestly; trust Jay to forget someone's name 10 minutes after he meets her. "Well maybe we should just do introductions. I'm Cole, the black ninja of earth." Cole offered.

"Name's Kai, red ninja of fire." Kai grumbled, still embarrassed about being threatened by a girl. "My name is Zane, the white ninja of ice." Zane introduced himself. "Yeah, and I'm Jay, the awesome blue ninja of lightning! Oh yeah, and that's Sensei Wu!" Jay yelled, earning a raised eyebrow from the Princess. I decided to speak up. "I'm Lloyd, and I'm the Green Ninja!" I said, waiting for any sign of recognition. I didn't get any. Apparently, she hadn't heard of us, then.

"What's your element?" She asked curiously.

"Lloyd can control all four of the elements." Sensei Wu informed her. Again, I waited for some sign of amazement, but again, I didn't get any. She just nodded in understanding, and then proceeded to introduce herself, "Well, I'm Ayesha, Princess and Master of Shadows. But you can just call me Ayesha." She finished with a small nod. "So that was her name…" Jay murmured. The ninja and I just laughed at him when he said that.

Suddenly, a look of realization marred Ayesha's features, as she began to speak again in a hurried, urgent tone, "I have a meeting tomorrow!" She gasped, "A meeting with the other three Queens, I have t-"

"Other three Queens?" I interrupted her. "Wasn't there something in that 'Prophecy of Nine' that said when there were 4 Queens in each kingdom, a new evil would rise, and five new elements would join the Queens?" I realized.

Ayesha just sighed. "I know about that prophecy. But it didn't work. The Platinum Weapons react to the other three Queens, but none react to my mother. When that didn't work, they tried to get the weapons to react to me, but that didn't work either. Now everyone thinks that the reason the weapons didn't work on me was that I wasn't Queen yet. Which is why I believe that my mother didn't fall ill at all. I think she was poisoned; poisoned so that I would be Queen." She finished, with a downcast look. I honestly didn't know what to say to that. I just felt so bad for Ayesha. I mean, she had to rule a kingdom by herself, her mother was dying, and she couldn't do anything to stop it.

After a long, awkward silence, Sensei Wu decided to speak up again. "Well perhaps you should stay until your meeting tomorrow, and we can leave for Ninjago straight afterwards." He suggested. Ayesha nodded, and said,

"Okay, that sounds like a good idea. I'll just tell my mother's advisor to get some rooms ready for you guys. How many do you need?"

"Well, " Cole began, "We us five ninja can share one room; we do that all the time, we need a room for Sensei, and a room for Nya. So just three should be fine. I'll go get Nya." And, true to his word, Cole walked out of the black gates and onto the Bounty to get Kai's sister. Ayesha just nodded and jogged off, only to return with a nervous looking girl of about 20. "This is Camellia. She'll show you guys your rooms." Then Ayesha just ran off again.

Camellia just bowed her head once, and began walking up a large set of stairs, down a corridor, and into a large room. Large was an understatement. The room was massive! Like the rest of the castle, it was mostly black and silver, and contained five double beds. Five! I think the rest of the ninja felt the same way I did, because we all claimed a bed, and then just stared at the room. After a while, though, I realized how tired I was, lay on my bed, and welcomed the embrace of sleep.

A.N: Next chapter will have the other 3 queens in it! Remember to review!


	3. Chapter 3

A.N: Hey everyone! I will be introducing the other 3 Queens (Air, Water and Nature) in this chapter. Also, I noticed that I forgot to put some name and word meanings in the last chapter, so here they are:

**Ethelwulf: Noble Wolf**

**Zilla: Shadow**

**Camellia: Helper**

Remember to review!

**_Lloyd_**

You know those moments when you wake up, but you keep your eyes closed and pretend to be asleep because you don't want to get out of bed? Well, I was having one of those moments. The bed I was sleeping on was just so comfortable; that night was probably the one with the most sleep I've ever had at once. Just when I thought things couldn't get any better, and I would get another 10 minutes of much needed rest, I heard a knock at the door. Ah, cruel irony. Groaning to myself, I hauled myself sluggishly out of bed, and stumbled over to the door.

When I opened it, I found Camellia, the maid who had showed us to our rooms yesterday, standing there. "Excuse me," She began in a meek voice, "but the Princess wishes to see you and your four companions." I looked around the room, but to my shock, Zane, Cole, Jay and Kai were all missing from their beds. "Umm, I think my 'other four companions' are somewhere else…" I trailed off sheepishly. Camellia just nodded and motioned for me to follow her anyway.

She lead me back to the main room of the castle, and then up a secret staircase, leading to another corridor. At the end of the corridor was a magnificent set of double doors, not unlike those of the throne room. Camellia just bowed her head once, and scurried away. There was only one thing left to do, and that was to knock. So I knocked twice, and after a few seconds, I heard Ayesha's muffled voice telling me to come in. I twisted the doorknobs and pushed the two doors open, only to gape at the sight before me.

Ayesha was kneeling on the floor, still in her black silk pyjamas, petting an enormous creature that looked like one of the Ethelwulf the two soldiers had described the day before. It had a lean, foxlike build, and was pitch black in colour, except for the tip of its tail, the outside of its ears and its paws, which were blood red. Its tail, chest and neck were covered in longer fur, giving it a wilder look. As soon as I stepped into the room, the monstrous creature snapped its head to face me, its fierce red eyes boring into my bright green ones.

Then it began to growl, bearing razor sharp fangs, and making a low rumbling noise as it advanced towards me, its long black claws clicking on the polished marble floor. Terrified, I backed into the door, wildly searching for the doorknob, not once taking my eyes off the beast before me. "Alistair!" Ayesha stood up as she reprimanded the Ethelwulf; causing it to falter in its advance, and stop growling, "Behave yourself!"

Suddenly, the wolf like animal stopped moving altogether, and padded over to where Ayesha was standing, only to flop down on its haunches and whine. I couldn't believe it. How could something so dangerous suddenly become so cute? "Sorry about Alistair," Ayesha apologized, "he always does that when anyone he doesn't know tries to talk to me." I was still a bit wary of Alistair, though, and Ayesha seemed to notice that, and said, "Don't worry about him! Just come over here and let him sniff your hand. Then he'll be fine."

So, taking Ayesha's word for it, I slowly approached Alistair, and offered my hand for him to sniff. Immediately, he jutted his nose into my palm, and began taking in every scent that was on it. When he seemed satisfied, Alistair licked my fingers once, and looked up at me expectantly. I couldn't help but let a silly grin plaster itself on my face as I scratched the Ethelwulf behind the ears, and he began to make a strange purring noise. Chuckling to myself, I watched as the once majestic looking creature lay down and rolled over onto his back, asking for a tummy rub.

Caught up in my introduction with Alistair, I didn't notice Ayesha struggling to keep a straight face as the wolf like animal tackled me to the ground, and began to lick my face. I only really remembered her presence when she burst out laughing, clutching her stomach and cheering her pet wolf on. The only thing I could think to do was to laugh with her.

Imagine how awkward it was when Jay, Cole, Zane and Kai walked in. "Okay…?" Kai stated, as I managed to wriggle out from underneath Alistair, and as Ayesha regained her composure. I could still see the faint smile that she hadn't managed to hide, though.

"Well, now that you're all here, I may as well say what I wanted to say before." She began, still using a slightly playful tone of voice. "I think that we should take advantage of this meeting I have with the other three Elemental Queens in a few hours, and ask Jayde and Leah, Masters of Nature and Water, to help us on our quest. After all, they are the wielders of two of the four Platinum Weapons, so…" she trailed off. "What about the Queen of Air?" asked Zane. Ayesha's faint smile disappeared, and was replaced with a bitter frown. "I'd rather not travel with her. We have had some… difficulties, in the past." She muttered.

Now I was really lost. In the legend, Nya had said that all four kingdoms had sorted out their differences, and made up. So why was there all this tension between Ayesha and the Air Queen? "Well," Cole began, "we should ask her to come if we are going to maximize our chances of succeeding. She is the wielder of the Gauntlets of Air, after all." He reasoned. Ayesha just sighed, and mumbled, "Fine, I'll consider it. But you five need to get out of my room so I can change into my royal stuff. Lloyd, can you take Alistair with you while I get ready?" I nodded in agreement, as Ayesha motioned for her pet to follow me.

As the ninja and I left Ayesha's room, Kai asked me, "So, is that wolf thing, like, the Princess' pet or something?"

"Yeah," I replied, "Alistair is like Ayesha's guard dog." The ninja just nodded in understanding. "Sensei said that he and Nya had to go back to Ninjago, and stay with the armies, so they hitched a ride on a fishing boat, and are on their way back." Jay informed me. It made sense, though. I mean, someone needed to make sure that Ninjago wasn't being destroyed, right?

As we walked back to the room the five of us shared, Kai and Cole started arguing about why Ayesha didn't like the Queen of Air, and that made me wonder too. Maybe they still held a grudge over the old legend that was the beginning of their lands? Or maybe they just didn't get along well? Whatever it was, it was obviously something more than a petty squabble.

When we got back to our room, we decided that we would wear our ninja suits, because they were the only clothes we had with us, and that way we wouldn't have to get changed. So we were just kind of hanging around; Cole and Kai were still arguing, Jay was trying to estimate the dimensions of the room, and I was just patting Alistair, as he stretched out on my bed.

A few minutes later, there was a knock at the door. Jay got up to answer it, but before he could, it was pushed open to reveal Ayesha standing on the other side. My first thought was that she looked extremely different. Rather than her casual, baggy clothes from the day before, or the silk pyjamas she had been wearing not long ago, Ayesha was clothed in black robes, lined with silver. Rather than leaving her jet-black hair down, as usual, she had it tied back in a ponytail, with a black crown perched on her head, embedded with blood red rubies. Ayesha no longer looked like the friendly, modest girl that had been playing with Alistair a few minutes earlier; she looked like a queen.

"Well, come on!" She called brightly, " We don't want to be late!" Then, she placed two of her fingers to her lips, and whistled to Alistair, who giddily bounded up to her, accepting a shower of pats and compliments from his master. Shaking my head at Ayesha's contradictory ways, I followed her and the other ninja out of our room, and into the palace. She led us to a locked door, found many flights of stairs beneath ground level. She then produced a key from inside her hidden sleeve pocket, and unlocked the door with it.

Inside the room was a pool filled with a strange white, misty substance. Ayesha turned to face us, and groaned; she was obviously not happy with something. "This year's meeting is at the Kingdom of Air; my least favourite place. See, every year, the venue changes, and seeing as my Empire was the host last year, it is the Air Kingdom's turn." She said in an annoyed tone. Gee, she really didn't like the Queen of Air, did she?

"To get to the meeting, all we have to do is jump into the pool; but you all have to be with me to get through." She informed. And without another word, Ayesha grabbed my hand, and with the other hand, she scooped up the massive Ethelwulf by the waist (I'll never know how she managed to lift that thing) and motioned for me to take hold of Zane's hand, and making a chain so that we could all get through. When that was done, Ayesha motioned for us to start running towards the pool, and when we were about a metre away, we jumped into it.

There was a rush of cold air, and everything around me was white; I couldn't even see Ayesha or my other friends! But in a second, it was all over, and I found myself in a heap on a white-carpeted floor, with the ninja piled on top of me. Ayesha, of course, was still standing, and trying her hardest not to laugh as she held a hand out to Zane and I, helping us up, and then doing the same for Kai, Cole and Jay.

When I regained my bearings, I found that we were in a spacious, plain white room, with a thick, white carpet lining the floor, and four large thrones; one black, one brown, one blue and one white, were placed around what looked something like a conference table. The only other person in the room was the woman seated on the white throne, who I assumed was the Air Queen.

She was clothed in identical robes to Ayesha, except hers were white, and she had a white tiara with pink gemstones embedded in it perched neatly on top of her long, straight chestnut coloured hair. On her hands, she wore two platinum gauntlets; the Gauntlets of Air. Her cappuccino coloured skin emphasised her light brown eyes, which were now fixated on Ayesha's obsidian ones. "Welcome, Ayesha, Princess of Shadow." She greeted her in a high, soprano voice, "And welcome to your friends, as well." She added. Cole bowed to her, and we decided to follow his example. "Heather." Ayesha greeted the Air Queen stiffly, "When will the other two be arriving?"

As if on cue, a green cloud formed in the air next to the brown throne, and another woman emerged from it. She was, again, wearing the same robes as the other two, but hers were a hazel colour. A platinum bow was slung across her back; the Bow of Nature. She also wore a light brown coloured crown, decorated with amethyst crystals. Her straight, chocolate brown hair hung loose around her waist, and her shy, hazel eyes explored the unfamiliar faces of Kai, Cole, Zane, Jay and I. She had skin that was something like Ayesha's; just lighter, and she spoke in a bright, alto voice, "Hello, Princess Ayesha, Queen Heather. It is a pleasure to be in your kingdom."

"Welcome, Jayde, Queen of Nature." Queen Heather stated. Jayde took her seat next to Ayesha, flashing her a quick smile in the process, which Ayesha gladly returned.

After a few more minutes, another cloud formed, except this cloud was a blue colour. Another Queen emerged from the cloud, and stumbled a bit with her landing. She had waist length platinum blonde hair, and icy blue eyes, which stood out against her pale skin. Her robes were a light blue colour, and the tiara perched on her head was blue with orange gems embedded in it. Strapped to her back was a platinum Bo staff; the Bo Staff of Water. "Welcome, Leah, Queen of Water." Queen Heather welcomed the Water Master, who nodded in return, before declaring, "It's good to see you again, Princess Ayesha, Queen Jayde and Queen Heather. It is a pleasure to be welcomed into your beautiful kingdom." She took her seat next to Queen Heather.

"Now," the Air Queen began, "Are there any issues that need to be discussed?" Queen Jayde raised her hand. "My subjects have been telling me of strange occurrences and presences in the east side of Ninjago; the side that was once dominated by the evil Overlord." She said in a concerned tone. Ayesha nodded in agreement. "Yes, my army was impersonated, and sent to attack the west side of Ninjago, making it look as if I wanted to start a war." She informed, sincerely.

Upon hearing this, Queen Leah and Queen Jayde gasped in shock, while Queen Heather simply narrowed her eyes, and began to think aloud. "But who would do such a thing? Who has anything so serious against the Shadow Empire that they would do such a thing?"

"Exactly." Concluded Ayesha. "And that is why these ninja are here with me. They came to ask that I cease to attack them, and are assisting me in finding the culprit. And that is also what I need to ask you three to help me with. We would like to ask your assistance in defeating this unknown enemy."

Queen Jayde immediately slung her platinum bow off of her back, kneeled before Ayesha, and said, "You have my word, that my kingdom and I will do our utmost to destroy this evil that threatens us all." After a few seconds of what seemed like deep thought, Queen Leah knelt down next to the Nature Queen, and vowed, "And my kingdom and I will assist you in any way we can." While unstrapping her Bo staff from her back, and holding it in front of her.

The Air Queen seemed to be contemplating whether to follow the example of the other two Queens, or to simply ignore the possible threat to her kingdom. After a minute, she hesitated, but held out her gauntlets, and grudgingly said, "I shall pledge my kingdom and life to your quest, Princess." Ayesha simply nodded at her.

So, after leaving their kingdoms in charge of their advisors, the other three elementals returned to the 'conference room', as I had decided to call it, and wordlessly formed the same chain that had to be made to get into the Air Castle in the first place. Again, Ayesha grabbed my hand, and shut her eyes, concentrating her energy into getting us all back safely. Suddenly, everything turned pitch black, and there was another rush of cold air as we stumbled out again outside Ayesha's castle.

"Are you four alright with sharing a room?" Jay asked the elementals, knowing that the only other room on the Bounty was Nya's one. Ayesha and Queen Heather just looked at each other with distaste clearly expressed in their eyes, and reluctantly nodded, while the other two had agreed without hesitation. Queen Leah eagerly sprinted up the gangway to enter the Destiny's Bounty, leaving Queen Heather to trail behind her. Ayesha just smiled at the ninja and I, as she grabbed Queen Jayde's hand and rushed into the Bounty, calling out something about getting a top bunk.

I just shrugged to myself, and followed Cole, Kai, Jay and Zane onto the flying ship. I had a feeling that this would be a long trip.

A.N: These chapters just keep getting longer and longer! So, what do you guys think happened between Ayesha and Heather to make them so hostile towards each other? You'll find out soon ;)

Now for some name meanings:

**Alistair: Defender of Mankind**

Remember to review!


	4. Chapter 4

A.N: Hey guys! Thanks to everyone who reviewed in the last chapter! Next chapter, I might write it from Ayesha's POV, or one of the other Queens, maybe. Hope you like it!

**_Lloyd_**

We had just boarded the Destiny's Bounty with the 4 Elemental Queens (well, 3 Queens and 1 Princess), we needed to set a course for eastern Ninjago, where Jayde first discovered the evil presence, and we had no idea who was driving the ship. Usually, Nya would drive, but hey, she was back watching over Ninjago! So right now, Kai, Cole, Zane, Jay and I were playing a game of Rock Paper Clamp to see who had to control the ship.

But before we could even start playing, Camellia burst into the ship. "Where is the Princess? The Princess must come with me quickly!" She shouted, panicked. I just pointed to Nya's room, and the maid sped off like a bullet, straight into the room. She whispered something to Ayesha, whose eyes widened, and suddenly darted out onto the deck that the ninja and I were standing on, and flipped over the railing, landing in a roll, and dashed into the castle.

"Well, that was weird…" Jay offered. But something wasn't right. Something must have happened inside the castle. So, without a second thought, I followed Ayesha's example, and jumped the railing on the side of the ship, and ran after her into the castle.

When I got into the main room that I had come to know quite well, considering I had only been there for one night, I looked around for the Princess of Shadow and Camellia, but they were nowhere to be seen. So I decided to wait for them. That was when the doors to a room on the right of me opened, and Ayesha came out, with a tear trickling down her cheek. Camellia and a few other maids seemed to be comforting her, but to no avail. Ayesha looked devastated. I decided that it would probably be best not to intervene, and to just ask her what happened when she got back to the Bounty.

As I walked back up the gangway, Cole asked me, "Why did she just run off like that? Was something wrong?"

"I don't know. She just ran inside, and then came out of this other room in tears. I have no idea what happened." I explained.

"Well maybe we should just wait for her to come back." Zane offered. I nodded in agreement, as the five of us watched the castle gates for Ayesha to come out.

A few minutes later, she walked out of the castle, and up the gangway, all traces of her tears gone; and yet she still looked miserable and worn-out. "Ayesha," I called out to her, "What happened?" She just looked at me with despondent, black eyes, and sighed. Wordlessly, she pulled two daggers from the belt around her waist. These weren't her normal daggers though. These two were made of pure platinum, and were glowing in her hands. But I thought that she had to be Queen to be able to hold the daggers? Then it hit me. Ayesha's mother had just died. She was now the Queen of Shadow.

At that moment, Leah and Jayde rushed forward and hugged the taller girl, offering their condolences and apologies. Ayesha just moved away from them, and muttered, "No, it's… it's okay. I mean, she was never really much of a mother to me anyway, so…" She trailed off, casting her eyes to the ground. I felt really bad for her. Of course, I never knew my mother until recently, but at least I knew she was still alive. Ayesha, on the other hand…

That was the second that Heather decided to come out of her room, and see what was going on. As soon as she saw Ayesha holding the Twin Daggers of Shadow, the Air Queen huffed in contempt, and said, "So, you finally managed to get rid of her, did you?" Instantly, Ayesha spun around to face her, grabbed her by the collar of her robes, drew back her fist and punched the offender in the jaw so hard that it knocked the Air Queen to the floor. Ayesha then advanced on Heather, who was sprawled on the floor, scrambling to get away from the Queen of Shadow, while wiping at the blood that had leaked out of the corner of her mouth. "Don't you dare." Ayesha warned, menacingly.

She then spun around, stormed into the room she shared with the other three Queens, and walked over to Jay and I. "Is there a spare bed in your room? I'm not sleeping in the same room as that bitch." She asked, purposely loud so that Heather could hear her. "Umm, yeah!" Jay began, "There's another bunk above Lloyd's one. You know, because there are only five of us, and bunk beds come in pairs, so-"

"Okay then, I'm moving in with you boys." She cut Jay off.

She walked into the room, and threw her black backpack on the bunk above mine, before climbing up and lying down. She was discreetly crying, trying her best to hide her tears and be strong. I admired her for that; it's not an easy thing to do. I just decided to leave her for now, and go back outside, only to find that Kai, Zane, Cole and Jay were still arguing over who would fly the ship. So, to end the unnecessary argument, I spoke up, "I'll drive." They all looked at me, and started doing a sort of victory dance. Sometimes I found it hard to believe that I was the youngest out of them. Shaking my head at the ninja's antics, I made my way past the Queens' room, and to the control room, but I couldn't help but hear that the three elementals were having a heated dispute.

"I can't believe you said that, Heather! Her mother just died! How could you be so cruel!" Cried Jayde. Leah decided to stick up for Ayesha too. "I agree, Heather. I know I usually stick up for you in arguments, but what you did back there was really wrong. I think you deserved more than just a punch." The Water Queen stated in a more controlled voice. Heather remained silent for a few seconds, and then began shouting, "Don't you remember what she did? How can you support her when you know she's done such a thing?"

When I heard that, I became more interested. What had Ayesha done that was so bad? Then Jayde began to speak again, this time in a more comforting tone, "Heather, what happened 8 years ago wasn't Ayesha's fault. It wasn't her choice to-"

"Whatever," Heather interrupted her, "you guys can get pulled into her illusion of false security, and innocence, but I know it was her fault. I just know it."

I decided that I'd eavesdropped enough, and continued walking towards the control room. Even while I tried to distract myself, I couldn't stop the quiet nagging in the back of my mind; what had happened between those two? I just shook my head, and grasped the wheel with my left hand. I pressed the button that made the ship airborne, and steered us so that we were facing southwest. Everything was so peaceful and quiet in the control room. No one else was in there, just me.

So of course, I pretty much had a heart attack when the door was pushed open behind me. I spun around, only to see that it was Ayesha, who looked up in surprise. "Oh, sorry! I didn't think anyone was in here. I thought the ship was on autopilot." She apologized.

"Nah, we didn't bother to set a course. Nya's the only one that can do that. Driving this thing is pretty boring, though. I'm glad there's at least someone to talk to." I assured her.

She seemed convinced by this, walked over to me and sat on a seat to my right. "Do you want me to help you figure out how to set a course for Western Ninjago? That way you won't have to die of boredom driving this thing!" she joked.

"Yeah, thanks!" I told her. She began to scan her eyes over the touch-screen map next to the wheel. "I think you just have to press this," She touched a button that had a picture of an arrow on it, "And then draw the path!" She grinned triumphantly, as she set the course. "Huh, I always kind of wondered what that button did…" I thought out loud. Ayesha just laughed at me, and asked,

"Did you ever think to try pressing it?"

"Nope." I replied, feeling stupid.

We sat in silence for a few seconds, until she turned to face me, and spoke in a slightly sad voice, "You know, all those years, I never really liked my mother. She was always telling me that I wasn't ladylike enough, that I was too boyish and that I should just focus on my royal duties and forget everything else. And you know, I longed for the day that I wouldn't have to hear her nagging anymore. But when she got sick, I wanted nothing more than to have her tell me to wear a dress instead of pants and a shirt, or to tell me that there were no weapons allowed at the dinner table. And, I knew this would happen one day; I just didn't think it would be so soon." She finished with a sad glance in my direction.

"Do you think I should have listened to her, Lloyd? I mean, do you think maybe I actually am too unladylike? Do you think I should be more like her?" She asked me, placing her head in her hands. I couldn't believe my ears! She honestly thought that she wasn't a good enough person? "Ayesha," I began, "I think you should be who you want to be. And I think I speak for everyone on this ship, when I say that we like you as you are. I don't think we would have even taken you with us if you were anything other than what you are now."

"What am I now?" She asked me, genuinely curious.

I thought for a second, before saying, "You're a unique individual, who's not afraid to break the rules, and who doesn't follow the crowd, like all the other stereotypes in the world." When I finished, she smiled, although it still showed a hint of melancholy.

"Thanks," she finally spoke, "I really needed that."

"Anytime." I replied with a smile, which she gladly returned. This time, it looked as if she had forgotten that she was upset. Then, Jayde decided to walk in. "Ayesha!" she exclaimed, as she pushed a strand of her long brown hair off her cheek, "There you are! Leah and I have been looking everywhere for you! Are you okay?" Ayesha turned to face Jayde, and replied with a smile, "Yeah, I'm fine. I've just been talking to Lloyd." Jayde looked at me, and then Ayesha again, and a slow smile spread across her face. "Okay then! Have fun, you two…" She trailed off mysteriously, as she left the room.

"What was that about?" I asked Ayesha. The look on Jayde's face didn't look quite safe. "I was just about to ask you that." She replied with a shrug.

"Well, the ship's in autopilot, so we may as well go do something else, like hang out with the other four?" I reasoned, not wanting to bring up the subject of Heather. "Sounds good to me!" She agreed, as we got up and left the control room.

We walked into the room that the ninja, and I, now with the new addition of Ayesha, shared, only to find that they were all chasing Alistair around the room, who had Kai's pillow clamped in his jaws. As soon as he saw us, Alistair immediately stopped running, causing the four ninja behind him to crash into the Ethelwulf and fall down in a heap. I couldn't help but join Ayesha in laughing at the ridiculous sight before me. And I only laughed harder when Alistair, looking extremely guilty, dropped Kai's pillow, now covered in slobber, at Ayesha's feet.

"You know, I was gonna use that when I got it off your dog-wolf thing, but I think I'll just leave it now…" Kai stated, only serving to make the other three begin laughing; even Zane. What can I say? He must have had his humor switch on! "Hey, Lloyd, I thought you were driving?" Cole said, confused.

"Aah! We're going to crash! We're all gonna die!" Jay cried, running around the room like a maniac. "Relax, Jay," Ayesha began, "We figured out how to set a course and put the ship in autopilot." That seemed to calm him down, and he released a long sigh of relief.

"So, what do you guys want to do?" Ayesha asked. Kai decided to suggest an idea, "Hey, I want to have a go at fighting you! You on for it; or are you too chicken?" he asked, obviously still mending his wounded pride from when she pinned him with her daggers the day before. "Ha! Too chicken? Of course I'll fight you, you hothead!" She challenged him, before she drew her newly acquired Twin Daggers of Shadow. "Umm, guys?" Zane asked tentatively, as both turned to face him. "Perhaps we should move this fight outside?"

"Good idea!" Ayesha nodded, and dragged Kai and I outside with her.

Kai got into a fighting stance, and drew his Sword of Fire, only to have Ayesha twirl her daggers around in her hands, creating small trails of shadow behind them. "Still want to fight me?" She asked, with a confident smirk. Kai just gulped, and said, "Y-Yeah! Of course I do!" before charging at the Queen of Shadow.

To my and everyone else's surprise, Ayesha just waited there, and at the very last minute, ducked down and delivered a low sweeping kick to Kai's shins, causing him to imbalance, and fall to the floor. But Ayesha still wasn't done. She leapt up, and moved to place her daggers at Kai's throat to declare her as the winner, when Kai whipped out his sword to block them. If either one of them moved out of this precarious position, they would have a strong chance of losing. So, neither moved, until Ayesha decided to end the fight by delivering a well placed kick to Kai's stomach, and then seizing the opportunity to place her daggers at Kai's neck.

"Told you I'd win." She commented with a smile, before taking a step back and offering a hand to help Kai up, which he grudgingly accepted. "Yeah, well, I… haven't trained in a while!" he made an excuse. "I bet I can beat you in a fight!" Cole suddenly piped up. Ayesha just raised an eyebrow, and moved into her fighting stance once more.

This time, rather than waiting for the opponent to make the first move, Ayesha ran towards Cole, and she feigned a kick to his right hip, while moving in for a punch to his ribs on the right side, causing Cole to flinch in pain. He then drew his scythe, using it to sweep under Ayesha's feet, knocking her over, and advancing on her. She quickly rolled to the side, flipped onto her feet, and delivered a roundhouse kick to Cole's side, which was exposed. Using that distraction as an advantage, Ayesha then hooked her arms through Cole's from behind, and flipped him behind her, causing him to land painfully on the ground with a muted thud. Again, Ayesha offered her hand to Cole to help him up, and he accepted it, groaning in pain as he stood up.

"Geez," he said with a grimace, "You're a lot stronger than you look!" Ayesha grinned at him, and replied, "Why, thank you!" triumphantly. Then she looked over at Jay and Zane expectantly. "Whoa, no way! I'm not going to fight you! You kicked their butts and you're gonna kick mine!" Jay cried in fear. Zane, on the other hand, simply pulled out his Shurikens of Ice, while saying "My brothers may have lost to you, but I don't plan to follow in their footsteps!"

Then he moved in to kick her left side ribs, which she dodged, but she didn't see Zane's fist before it hit her right side, causing her to flinch. She then grabbed the hand that had punched her, and used it to ram her shoulder into Zane's chest, and flip him over it. However, Zane landed on his feet, only to receive a kick to the stomach, making him double over slightly. Ayesha used this to her benefit, and ran behind Zane, keeping him in a headlock with her daggers at his neck.

"Sorry about that." She apologized as she took a step back. "Does your stomach hurt?" she asked, concerned. Zane just shook his head, before hesitating, and then saying "It does, a bit." Ayesha just looked to the floor guiltily. That was when I decided to have a go. "Hey, Ayesha!" I caught her attention, "Do you want to fight me?" I challenged her. She turned to face me, a dangerous grin plastered on her face. "Sure, Lloyd!" She agreed. I got into my fighting position, waiting for her to make the first move.

She ran towards me, drawing her right fist back, about to punch me, when I caught it, about to flip her over my shoulder like she had done to Zane, when she took me by surprise and yanked her hand away from mine with a startling amount of force, and attempted to drop to the ground, and sweep her feet under mine, but I dodged her, only to find that she had feinted that move, and was now coming in for a punch to the left side of my ribcage, which I was too slow to dodge. I winced internally; she had quite a punch. I decided that to win this fight, I needed to get on the offensive. So, I swept her feet out from under her, and went to trap her on the floor with my foot, when she grabbed it and threw me onto the floor next to her. Before I could even register what had happened, I could feel the cool metal of her daggers pressed against my throat.

She stood, pulling me up with her. "And I seriously thought I would beat you…" I said, grinning. She beamed at me, "Yeah," she agreed, "I did too when you had me trapped on the floor! Well, now that that's over… I'm starving! Should I make dinner?" she offered. When she said that, Zane poked his head out from inside the kitchen. "I've already made dinner!" he called. Ayesha perked up at the mention of food, darted into the kitchen and sat down on one side of the table.

Then I realized something. If we were all having dinner, which would mean that the other three Queens would have to eat too. And that would mean that Ayesha would have to deal with Heather. But apparently, Zane had already thought of that, as he announced, "The other three ate a while ago; Heather didn't want to stay up too late, and she complained that everyone else in the room had to be asleep if she were to have a peaceful rest." Huh. Typical Heather, I guess.

And with that, everyone chose a seat; Ayesha in the middle of Zane and I, and Jay sandwiched between Cole and Kai. Within less than ten minutes, everyone was finished eating, (Ayesha finished her dinner in a matter of seconds) and we all got changed into our pyjamas.

As we were all getting into bed, we all said our goodnights. "Goodnight, everyone." Whispered Zane, not wanting to wake the Queens in the room next to us. "Night, boys!" Ayesha spoke quietly. Then it was my turn, "See you in the morning, guys!" Cole decided to speak up, next, "Goodnight guys and girl!" he joked. "Later guys!" shouted Kai, earning a glare from Ayesha for being so loud. "Sorry." He whispered. We all waited for Jay to say goodnight, but when I looked over at his bunk, he was fast asleep. Poor guy; his lightning mouth must have taken its toll. I smiled to myself at that thought, as I buried myself further into my bed, and waited for sleep to claim me.

A.N: Whoa… That took a while to write! Next chapter will be from Ayesha's POV… Remember to review!


	5. Chapter 5

A.N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed last chappie! This one is a little different because its from Ayesha's POV. The next one will probably be from Jayde or Kai's POV… Hope you guys like it! Remember to review! Before we start: **Shoutout to Cat because I know she loves Kai!**

**_Ayesha_**

You know those times when you're having this great dream, and then suddenly there's this loud noise, which makes you wake up and almost have a heart attack? Well, that's what happened to me on my first morning on the Destiny's Bounty. I was happily sleeping on my top bunk, when the shrill cry of an alarm clock pierced the sanctity and silence of my dream like a knife. I propped myself up on my elbows to get a look at what time it was on the clock that was still making an infernal racket. To my annoyance, though, I couldn't read the clock due to my short sight.

Sighing to myself, I threw my pillow at the clock, which stopped ringing, and quietly jumped off the bed, so as not to wake up Lloyd (who had let Alistair sleep on his bed with him) or the other ninja, who were, amazingly, still asleep. I looked around for my backpack that I had kicked off the edge of the bed in my sleep, and when I found it, I thrust my hand inside, feeling around for my glasses case. When I felt the familiar cool metal on my hand, I grasped the case, and opened it, revealing a pair of long distance glasses, with a green rim on the top and half way down the lenses.

Triumphantly, I slid the glasses on, adjusting them so that I could see everything more clearly. See, usually, I wouldn't wear my glasses in my kingdom, because I always used to get teased and called four-eyed freak when I was younger. I knew that no one would dare say such a thing to their Queen, but old habits die hard, I guess. Standing from my kneeling position on the floor, I noticed, now that I was fully awake, that Kai wasn't in his bed. Puzzled, I walked outside, and saw him leaning on the railing of the ship, his caramel coloured eyes fixed on the sky. He looked slightly troubled.

"Hey Kai," I greeted him softly, not wanting to startle him or wake the others, "What's up?" my attempts not to scare him were in vain, it seemed, because he whirled around and jumped about a metre in the air. "Oh…Its just you… Nothing much, really. Just… thinking, I guess." He murmured, looking like he was still in a daze, and wasn't really concentrating. I mean, he didn't even notice that I was wearing glasses! I decided to snap him out of it. "Kai!" I whispered harshly, while snapping my fingers in front of his nose.

"Huh! Wha?" he mumbled, flinching.

"What are you thinking about?" I asked him. Whatever it was, it must be something really interesting, for him to be so distracted. "Oh, nothing. Just someo-" He stopped himself. "I mean something! Yeah, something!" He added hurriedly. I grinned to myself. Kai had the L word. He had it bad. The question was; who?

So, being the naturally curious person I am, I decided to do some investigation. When I turned to ask Kai another question, I saw that he was back to daydreaming. Aah, young love. So instead, I tried listing all the possibilities, from most to least likely. The list I came up with went roughly like this:

Either Jayde or Leah (because they're both really nice, and really pretty too)

Heather (she would be last, because she's an ass, but since Nya is Kai's sister…)

Nya (…Eew, that would be really weird…)

Okay, I know I didn't exactly have much of a list, but hey, I could work with it. I decided that it would probably be best to wait until the girls woke up, though, because I could do some serious interrogation and observation.

Now I had a new dilemma; what was I going to do until everyone else woke up? After contemplating whether or not to go ahead with it, I decided that I would wake up the rest of the boys. I would've also woken the girls, but after what happened the previous day, I really didn't want to risk seeing Heather for a while. See, I have this uncanny habit of temporarily losing my sanity when I get angry with people. Okay, so maybe not losing my sanity, but I've been told that that's what it looks like, anyway.

So, making as little noise as I could, I tiptoed back into the room I shared with the boys, and shouted at the top of my lungs, "Hey guys! Wake up!" That seemed to work well. Immediately, all the boys woke with a start, much like I had a few minutes ago. Even Alistair, who I felt bad for waking, was standing alert, with his red eyes watching me for orders, both ears standing up straight. I smiled softly at the sight of my little Allie (Yes, I call him Allie. Problem?). I'd had him ever since I was just two years old. My father gave him to me, as a newborn pup, to guard me. Shortly after my father gave Alistair to me, he left for a battle, and was killed. He died a hero, though, and for that I am glad.

Shaking my head to rid it of negative thoughts, I smiled brightly, and said, "Well, now that you're all awake… I'm bored!" I complained. The boys just groaned; except Zane, who was still asleep. Geez, talk about a heavy sleeper! Jay hadn't even opened his eyes, and was currently in the process of falling asleep again, and Cole had gone to the bathroom to change into his ninja suit. Lloyd was just getting out of bed, but froze when he saw me. "You're wearing glasses!" he shouted. "Yeah, I'm short sighted, Captain Obvious!" I teased. He still looked confused. "But if you're short sighted, why weren't you wearing them before?" he asked. "Oh, I um, used to get bullied as a kid because of them… So I wouldn't wear them in public." I muttered, feeling slightly ashamed.

"Why would people bully you just because you wear glasses? That's just stupid. Heaps of people wear glasses. Heck, my mum wears glasses!" He reasoned. He looked funny, as if he were having a debate with himself, while sitting on his bed in his pyjamas, his blonde hair all disheveled and messy. It made him look more like a kid. It was cute. In answer to his little lecture, I shrugged my shoulders, and sat next to him on the bed. I thought that maybe he could help me sort out 'Operation Kai's Crush'. That's what I decided to dub it. What? I think it's a cool name!

"Hey, so this morning, I woke up early, and I saw that Kai wasn't in his bed. So I went outside, and I saw Kai standing on the deck staring at the clouds. And when I tried to talk to him, he was acting as if he was in some sort of trance. When I asked him what he was thinking about, he said he was thinking about someone!" I whispered excitedly, so that Kai wouldn't hear me. Lloyd just looked at me blankly. Men. I rolled my eyes at his vacant expression. "It means he's in love, Lloyd. Kai. Is. In. Love. With. A. Girl." I clarified, speaking slowly, as if talking to someone who didn't understand English.

That woke Lloyd up. "What? Kai likes someone? Who?" he exclaimed incredulously. "I'm still figuring that out. I think it's either Jayde or Leah. I was hoping you might be able to help me. Have you seen either of them acting weird around Kai, or vice versa?" I questioned, now in full interrogation mode.

"Nah, not really…" he supplied, absentmindedly scratching Allie behind the ear, who was purring contentedly. "Allie really likes you." I noticed. Lloyd just furrowed his eyebrows at me, and said "Who?"

"Alistair. I call him Allie for short." I explained.

"Huh. Allie. I like it." He nodded in satisfaction.

After a few more minutes of pampering Alistair, who seemed to be enjoying all the attention, my stomach grumbled. Lloyd began to chuckle at that, and when I blushed, embarrassed, he laughed even harder. "Ha ha, very funny." I said, sarcastically. "Can we go see if Zane made breakfast?" I asked, still slightly blushing. Lloyd just nodded, grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the kitchen with him.

When I walked in, I noticed one good thing, and one bad thing. The good thing was, that sure enough, Zane had made pancakes for breakfast. The bad thing was that Heather was sitting at the table with Jayde and Leah. Heather was sitting on one side of the table, next to Leah, and Jayde was sitting on the other side of the table, opposite the empty seat. I decided to sit next to Jayde, and Lloyd sat next to me. As soon as I sat down, Heather decided to acknowledge my presence with an insult. "So, the famous four eyed freak has decided to join us." She stated, snidely. It took all of my self-control not to punch her again. I noticed, with a smile, that Heather had a large, ugly bruise marring her face where I had hit her.

Blocking Heather from my thoughts, I turned my attention to Leah and Jayde. "Morning Jayde, morning Leah!" I greeted them sunnily.

"Good morning Ayesha!" Jayde replied, beaming at me.

"Hey Ayesha!" Leah greeted me calmly. I didn't notice anything off about either of the girls, but to my joy, I saw Kai peeking through the window, looking straight at Jayde. So, Fire and Nature it is, then. I grinned to myself, pleased with my recent discovery. The rest of the meal was spent in silence; the atmosphere between Heather and I was so tense that everybody was too afraid to speak.

The funny thing was, Heather didn't touch any of the food. She just stared at me with a disgusted look on her face. So to annoy her further, I shoved a huge forkful of pancake in my mouth, chewed it a bit, and then began making funny faces at her. I noticed Lloyd trying to hold in his laughter next to me. Heather dropped her fork. "Ugh, that's disgusting, Ayesha." She said my name as if it were a disease, "Could you get any more immature?"

"Well, I could try." I replied thoughtfully. Heather stood up, huffed at me indignantly, and high-tailed out of the room. Lloyd and I took one look at each other, and burst out laughing.

Jayde smiled at us, and started mouthing something to Leah, who gasped excitedly, and mouthed back, 'Really?' Then Jayde nodded as she and Leah hi-fived each other. But I was honestly having too much fun laughing to care what they were talking about. "D-did you see the l-look on Heather's face when you did that with the pancakes?" asked Lloyd, between laughs.

"I know right! A-and when I said that I c-could t-try being more immature!" I replied, sending myself into another fit of laughs. Still smiling, Jayde got up from her seat, and gently pulled Leah outside with her.

As Lloyd and I calmed down from our laughing marathon, I saw Jayde and Leah about to walk past Kai. I rushed to the window, knocking over my chair in the process, and watched as Jayde said good morning to Kai. I swear I saw the faintest shade of pink stain his cheeks as he stumbled over his words, trying to say something back. I smiled as I watched their encounter, wondering if Kai knew how funny he looked.

Suddenly, Cole shouted out from the other side of the deck, "Guys! I can see the shoreline of western Ninjago! We should be there in about an hour!" I looked over at Lloyd, "I'm just going to go change out of these pyjamas into some decent clothes." I explained, as I darted into the room I shared with the boys. I rummaged through my old black backpack, searching for my usual black singlet and baggy, transparent shirt, as well as my trademark black, baggy pants with the silver hems. They were probably my favourite choice of clothes, because the material was light, and easy to move around in. Also, I could hide in the shadows more discreetly. As for shoes, I only had one pair; the mid-calf black boots that I had been wearing for the past few weeks. Yes weeks. Problem?

I left the bathroom as son as possible so that the boys could change into their ninja suits, and went to discuss Operation Kai's Crush with Jayde. I found her in the room she shared with the other two, sitting on the bed, humming a soft melody under her breath, while Heather was rifling through her designer handbag, looking for a change of clothes. As soon as she saw me, Heather walked out of the room, throwing one last scathing look over her shoulder at me. "Hey Jayde." I greeted my friend.

I had known Jayde since we were children; maybe 4 or 5 years old. We were schooled together, of course, with Heather and Leah as well, according to tradition. Jayde and I would go everywhere together. Leah stuck with Heather though. Jayde was the type of girl who was brilliant at singing, sport, and did quite decently in terms of intelligence, while I was useless at everything except academic, which I excelled greatly in. So did Leah, actually.

See, Leah's got an eidetic or photographic memory, meaning that she can recall images and sounds with extreme precision, which always gave her a bit of an academic edge. Leah and I would compete with each other; always looking to see who got the better report, and who did better in exams. In maths, Leah would always come out on top (I loathed maths), and I would top her scores in everything else. Leah's story is quite a sad one, actually. She was brutally abused by her mother, and would come to school every day with scars and bruises all over her. When she was ten, her father died in a battle; much like mine did, and her mother, unable to deal with the loss, drove herself insane, and committed suicide five years later, leaving a 15 year old Leah as the Queen of Water.

Heather is a different story altogether. She was brought up in the lap of luxury, wearing designer clothes every day, and making fun of me because I wore glasses, and didn't get contacts instead. Once, she told people that she had gotten lost in a forest when she was three, and everyone else had began talking about more impressive things that had happened to them, which I think ticked her off a little. She tolerated me, until the day she turned 12; the day of the Incident.

"Hey Ayesha," Jayde's voice shook me from my thoughts, bringing me back to the confines of reality, "Was there something you wanted to talk about?" she asked. I could only smile at her. Jayde knew me too well. "Yes, actually," I began, hesitating, unsure how to proceed. So, I decided to be direct. "Do you like Kai?" I asked bluntly. Jayde's face turned as red as a tomato as she cast her eyes to the ground, and fiddled with the hem of her light green dress as she nodded slowly.

"I knew it!" I exclaimed quietly. Jayde's face just turned even redder, as she asked, "Is it really that obvious?"

"No, not at all!" I assured her, "But it's really obvious that Kai likes you!" I finished with a maniacal grin. "He does?" She asked incredulously. I nodded at her. "What do I do now?" She asked me, starting to sound slightly panicked. I smiled at her nervous behavior. "Just act normal, Jayde. He likes you for who you are, not for someone you can pretend to be." I advised her. We sat there in silence for a few seconds, until I realized something. "Where's Leah?"

"Oh, Leah is changing in the bathroom next door." Jayde replied, in answer to my question. I nodded in understanding, and stood from my cross-legged position on Jayde's bed, stretching out my back as I did so. "Well, I'm going to go check on Lloyd and Alistair. See you later!"

"Bye Ayesha! And thanks for the help!" Jayde thanked me. I waved goodbye to her as I walked out of the room.

I walked into the room I shared with the guys. The sight that greeted me was that of Lloyd sitting cross-legged on the floor, scratching Allie's stomach. I decided to take him by surprise, and stalked up behind the Green Ninja, only to tackle him sideways, making him cry out in surprise, and making Alistair whine from the lack of attention. "Hi Lloyd!" I chirped, beaming innocently. Lloyd just grinned back at me, before rolling over, trapping me with his arms. ""Hi Ayesha!" he mimicked my facial expression and tone of voice. "You know," I began in a know it all way, "mimicry is considered the sincerest form of flattery." He just flashed another smile at me, and said softly, "Well I guess you're being flattered very sincerely, then!" For a few more seconds, we just stayed like that; slowly beginning to lean in. Suddenly, the moment was broken, as Alistair barked, and jumped on Lloyd's back, obviously wanting attention.

I blushed tomato red when I realized what had just happened; we almost kissed! I wriggled out from underneath Lloyd, who helped me up, and stared at my feet, seeing as I couldn't look into his emerald green eyes without blushing even more, if that was even possible. "Hey everyone!" shouted Jay from the deck, "We've landed at Western Ninjago!" Still blushing faintly, Lloyd and I walked outside, only to realize that we were still holding hands. Quickly, we let go of each other, but our arms were still touching. I noticed Jayde and Leah, who was clothed in a dark blue crop-top type shirt and skinny jeans with combat boots, smiling knowingly at us, so I just mustered my worst grimace at the pair. Heather was standing away from everyone else, dressed in a white blouse, and a knee length light grey skirt, and was glaring daggers at Lloyd and I, which I ignored.

Cole stepped forward; ready to instruct us on what we had to do. I had a feeling this was going to be quite an interesting day.

A.N: Ayesha and Lloyd almost kissed! Is there more to Heather than her sour attitude, and her hatred towards Ayesha? Next chapter, I will reveal a bit more about the Incident that happened between Ayesha and Heather. Remember, the more reviews you guys post, the quicker I post the chapters! Also, be sure to check out **bookworm108**'s Ninjago fic, **The Other Ninja**. Its really cool!


	6. Chapter 6

A.N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter! This chapter is from Lloyd's POV. Hope you like it, and remember to review!

**_Lloyd_**

It just had to be pairs, didn't it? I guess fate really has it in for me, then. Cole had stepped out front to tell us what the plan was. "Okay, so we're going to split up for the time being; we'll go in pairs, and meet back here in a couple of hours. Heather, you're with Leah, Jayde you can go with Kai, Jay, Zane and I will go together, since there's an odd number, and Lloyd, that leaves you with Ayesha." He concluded. There's only one word that can describe the situation I had found myself in. Awkward. Yes, awkward. I mean, we were so close to kissing! Man, I can't believe that even happened… And then Cole just had to go and pair me with Ayesha.

Don't get me wrong, I like Ayesha… A lot… but it's just a bit weird after what happened before. I was still so nervous about that that I couldn't even bring myself to look into her obsidian eyes. That would just make me even more embarrassed.

I was startled out of my thoughts when Cole began speaking again, while intensely studying a map of the island. "So, we all need to check different places. Heather and Leah, you can check the Dark Forest." When Cole said that, Heather turned ghostly pale. I just shrugged it off, and listened for where Ayesha and I were going. "Jayde and Kai, you two check Ashikaga Village." They nodded, Kai blushing like crazy. Geez, could he make it any more obvious? "Ayesha, Lloyd, you two can check out the Cora Mountains, and Zane, Jay and I will go look in the Chandra Caves. Any questions?" Everyone just shook their heads.

I turned to Ayesha, who I noticed still had a faint tinge of pink on her cheeks, and asked her, "So, should we go now?" She flicked her gaze upwards, our eyes meeting, and nodded. Looking out at the horizon, I could see the snowy peaks of the Cora Mountains; it looked like we would take a day just to get there. Heather must have been thinking the same thing as I was, because she sneered at Ayesha, while saying, "Well, how are you going to get there, 'Queen' Ayesha? I know I've got my method straight!"

The Queen of Air then pulled a glass flute from her handbag, and blew a strong, clear note into it. Ayesha rolled her eyes. "Yes, go on, gloat at me all you want with your stupid pegasi!" she said offhandedly, dismissing Heather with a wave of her hand. Wait, pegasi? Heather had a Pegasus? I could hear the flapping of wings above me, and not long after, I caught a glimpse of a large, winged, white horse flying down from the heavens to greet the Air Queen. The Pegasus landed next to Heather, who then stroked its velvety muzzle fondly. "Well," she spoke confidently, "what have you got, Ayesha?"

I looked at the girl beside me, as she grinned that grin we all know and love, and turned to face the Northeast. She then put her fingers to her mouth, and whistled as loudly as she could. After a while, nothing happened, and Heather began to flaunt her pet around, showing everyone how 'elegant' and 'beautiful' it was. In my opinion, it wasn't that great. Not compared to what I was about to see, anyway.

The sky began to darken dramatically, as black clouds rolled in from all directions, and a dark mist rose from the earth. The very ground began to shake, as the distant roar of thunder could be faintly heard. Heather no longer had the sultry smile she had been wearing before; in its place was a look of pure terror, as even her Pegasus cowered behind her. Suddenly, out of the mist leapt not one, but two large dragon-like creatures, with no wings.

They were bigger than Alistair; roughly the size of a car. Like Alistair, though, they both had lean, slender builds and long legs, which I assumed made them more efficient runners. They had bright red eyes, and wickedly sharp spines on their necks and tails. If I had to choose between these and Heather's Pegasus, I would choose these any day. "Guys, meet Reva and Sherwyn, my twin Viperion. See, another reason I knew it wasn't my army that was attacking Ninjago was that you didn't mention the Viperion. I never go into battle without them." She introduced the two with a victorious smile in Heather's general direction.

Alistair barked once, and looked back and forth between Ayesha and I, wanting to come with us. Ayesha's face softened at the sight of poor Allie, as she walked up to him and spoke in an apologetic tone, "Oh Allie! I'm sorry, but we need you to stay here. Someone needs to look after the ship while we're gone." She was right. Without any of us on the ship, it could easily be attacked.

Heather looked absolutely petrified, and was as pale as a sheet. She began to speak in a shaky voice, "G-get those t-things a-away from m-me!" she managed to blurt out. I frowned at this. Heather seemed to be unnaturally afraid of these two Viperion. But why?

Dismissing that thought from my mind, I turned to face Ayesha, who was currently perched on one of the creature's backs, stroking its neck fondly. She turned her head to face me, our eyes locking again, and she assured me, "Just hop on Reva there! She won't bite you!" Deciding to take her advice, I approached Reva, who noticed me and kneeled down so that I could climb onto her back. I swung my right leg over, and grasped the back of the Viperion's scaly neck.

Unlike the Ultra-Dragon, Reva was comfortable to sit on, and her scales were a lot smoother than my dragon's. She was also thinner, meaning it was easier to sit on her. I looked over at Ayesha for further instruction. Grinning at me wildly, she challenged, "Want to race?"

"Are you kidding!" I replied, "I don't even know how to ride this thing!" Still grinning, Ayesha urged Sherwyn towards Reva and I, only to place her hands over mine and guide them to the sides of Reva's neck, the simple contact sending sparks through my veins. "Just hold on there; if you want to go faster, just tell her to go faster, and if you want her to go slower, tell her to. To turn, just lean whichever way you want to go. Easy!" She instructed me.

"Okay, then." I replied. Ayesha beamed at me again, and said,

"Ready? Set. GO!" and with that, we were off. If I could use words to describe my experience on Reva, I would say that it was just mind-blowingly fast. I could feel the wind rushing past me, and through my messy blonde hair. When I got the hang of riding, I noticed that Ayesha was about two metres in front of me. I growled to myself; I wasn't going to let her win. I leaned down to Reva's ear, and whispered one word, "Faster."

As soon as I did, everything was rushing past me at what seemed like the speed of light, and I successfully whizzed past Ayesha and Sherwyn, laughing as I did. Looking behind me, I saw Ayesha poke her tongue out at me, and then lean down to whisper in Sherwyn's ear. She and Sherwyn shot past me like a bullet; slicing through the air at an impossible speed. I was about to ask Reva to go faster again, but then I noticed the mountain range rushing towards me. "Slower." I whispered in my Viperion's ear, and sure enough, she slowed down enough to come to a complete stop at the base of the mountains.

Ayesha swiftly dismounted Sherwyn, before walking over to Reva and I. "I love riding Sherwyn and Reva. I just love going at such high speeds; they make me feel so light and carefree…" She trailed off, before pulling me off the Viperion's scaly back. I looked up at the mountains, and in the process of doing so, noticed a large brownish-gold bird flying overhead. Wait, do birds normally have four legs? And fur? Ayesha followed my gaze, and waved at the bird. "That's Jayde and Kai! On her Griffin, Ceria!" she cried. Sure enough, when I focused my eyes a little more, I could see Jayde's figure on the Griffin's back, wearing her long, emerald green dress, as she smiled and waved to Ayesha and I. She was sitting behind Kai, and had her arms wrapped around him to grasp the reins. I could only smile at Kai's expression; he looked ecstatic!

The thing I was really interested in, though, was the Griffin, Ceria. She was about as big as Reva and Sherwyn, with a long, sharp beak and big brown eyes. Her tail was that of a lion, and rather than spindly bird legs, Ceria had the golden furred legs and paws of a lion, claws and all. She had more of a short and stocky build, and really looked like she could put a hurt on someone.

When Jayde, Kai and Ceria were out of view, Ayesha grabbed my hand and led me into the dark caverns of the mountain. Behind us were Reva and Sherwyn, making sure no one attacked us from behind. Inside the cavernous chamber, it was pitch dark, and I couldn't see a thing. I could only feel Ayesha's hand on mine, and hear her steady breathing. Then a thought occurred to me. "How can you see in here?" I asked her.

"I'm the Queen of Shadow! If anyone has good night vision, it's me!" She explained gleefully. I nodded at her reasoning, knowing she could see me.

We walked on like that for a while, until Ayesha's hand was harshly jerked out of mine, and I heard her gasp. "Ayesha?" I called out. No reply. I was getting nervous now. I couldn't see a thing, and Ayesha could be potentially hurt. "Reva? Sherwyn?" I called the two Viperion hesitantly. Sure enough, I felt both of their rough muzzles rub against my arms reassuringly. "Can you two see in here?" I asked them. Admittedly, I felt a bit stupid talking to animals, but from what I knew, they could understand me. Sherwyn growled in affirmative, and her tail began to glow faintly. Reva soon copied her brother, and I found myself with a sight radius of approximately five metres. Well, it was better than nothing.

I searched around desperately, my eyes roving over every detail around me. No sign of Ayesha. Now I was beginning to panic. Where could she have gone? Suddenly, there was a loud clatter from behind me. I whirled around, to be greeted with the sight of Ayesha kneeling on the floor, eyes closed. I approached her without hesitation. "Ayesha, are you okay? What happened?" I questioned. As soon as I spoke, Ayesha snapped her eyes open. They were bright red. Full of pain, sadness, fear, anger; full of bloodlust. This wasn't right. This wasn't the Ayesha I knew. She had been possessed.

I backed away from her hurriedly, as she stood up, drew her Twin Daggers of Shadow, and spun them once in her hands. I was still walking backwards, as my back met the stony wall of the cave behind me. I had nowhere to run. All I could do was fight her. She broke into a sprint, and drove her dagger towards the centre of my chest. I blocked her arm in its advance, just managing to stop her from killing me. She let out a guttural, animalistic growl, and moved her other dagger-armed hand to deal a fatal blow to the side of my head. I grabbed that arm as well, as I realized something. This Ayesha wasn't going to fight using strategy. She was fuelled by anger and hatred, which meant that she was using brute strength, and wasn't thinking clearly. I had the upper hand. And she was still beating me. I was going to lose if I didn't think of something soon.

Reva and Sherwyn had backed up against the wall, terrified of their mistress' new attitude. I delivered a kick to her shin, causing her to fall to the ground. I moved to pin her to the ground with my foot, but she rolled out of the way and tackled me to the floor. I pushed her off me, and leapt to my feet, only to find that Ayesha was no longer in front of me. By the time I realized that she was behind me, she had already grabbed me and pinned me to the wall. I struggled to free myself from her iron-like grip, but to no avail.

I braced myself for the impact of Ayesha's daggers, but the sharp pain never came, as the Queen of Shadow was thrown off me, and tackled to the ground by something that I could not yet see. I stepped forward, only to see that Alistair, god bless him, had wrestled his mistress to the ground, and was having a hard time keeping her there. Suddenly, Allie thrust his forehead forwards, pressing it to Ayesha's. As soon as skin met fur, a bright white glow filled the cavern of the mountain, temporarily blinding me.

As my vision slowly returned, I saw that both Ayesha and Alistair had been thrown apart from each other; both lay unconscious on either side of the cavern. I rushed towards Ayesha, as she began to open her eyes. To my relief, they were back to their usual obsidian black colour, and not the bloodthirsty red they had been before. I supported her upper back with my right hand as she attempted to lift herself off the floor. "Lloyd," she began, "I'm so sorry."

I frowned, and asked her, "Sorry? Why are you sorry?" Wordlessly, Ayesha lifted her hand, and brushed her fingertips across my cheek, her touch soft like velvet. When she drew her hand away, I noticed that it was stained with my blood. She must have managed to land a hit with her daggers.

Ayesha then tried to sit up further, but winced in pain when she shifted all her weight onto her left arm. Suddenly, a strange emotion washed over me. I was just so relieved that she was all right. Before I knew what I was doing, I pulled the Shadow Queen into a hug, which she returned with one arm. I decided that it was probably best to help her up, and when I did, offering her my hand as she had done countless times for me and the rest of the team, she gasped, and ran over to where Alistair had landed.

"Oh no, oh no, oh no… Lloyd, how did Allie get me back to normal?" Ayesha asked, a look of worry and desperation marring her features. "He just… Ran in, and then touched your forehead with his. And there was this blinding flash of li-"

Before I could finish, Ayesha interrupted me, "Lloyd, do you realize what Allie did?" She asked. I shook my head, still confused as to what had happened. "All Ethelwulf have the power to store memories, and share them with other Ethelwulf. It's almost like their way of communication. But Alistair used that power on me, successfully bringing me back, but using so much of his energy that he could potentially be stuck in his subconscious memories until his body gives out and he dies!" She finished, tears rolling down her cheeks as she grasped the silky fur of her companion.

I steeled my resolve, as I asked her, "What can we do?" knowing the answer was probably going to involve something dangerous. Ayesha locked her jet black eyes with my bright green ones, sheer determination shining in their depths, as she explained. "We need to try and tap into Alistair's memories, and get his attention so that we can pull him back to reality. Lloyd, the memories Allie is reliving are… difficult for me to remember, and there's some stuff in there that no one but the people in the memory itself know. So, whatever you see in there, please just don't tell anyone about them." I nodded in understanding as she grasped my hand, and placed her other hand on Alistair's forehead.

This time, there was no blinding flash of light; just a rush of warm air. When I opened my eyes (I didn't even remember closing them), I found myself in a large, sandy plain. Next to me, still holding my hand, was Ayesha, but she was transparent and colorless, like a ghost. She smiled at me weakly, and gestured towards three children who were playing catch with a small rubber ball.

The first one was a girl of about twelve, with coffee coloured skin, light brown eyes and chestnut hair, wearing a simple, plain white dress. I realized with a start that this was actually Heather as a child. The second child was a boy of about ten years old, with dark brown hair and golden eyes, who was wearing a white button up shirt and loose, blue jeans. I didn't recognize him. The last child, however, I knew only too well. She also looked about ten, with jet black hair, toffee coloured skin and obsidian eyes, and was clothed in a black hooded cloak that was slightly too long for her. The feature that really gave her away, though, were her glasses. This girl was obviously Ayesha.

"Adrian! Catch!" Shouted Ayesha, as the boy, Adrian, whirled around in an attempt to catch the ball. However, he didn't manage to catch it, as the ball sailed past his outstretched arm, and into a pit of quicksand. Heather gasped, and ran towards Adrian, desperately yelling, "Quick, Adrian! The ball! Get the ball!" Adrian took one look at the distraught look on Heather's face, and darted towards the quicksand to retrieve the rapidly sinking ball. He lay on the ground, and stretched his arm out, trying to grasp the ball.

The boy's fingers finally closed around the rubber ball, and he held it up triumphantly. In doing so, though, the sand supporting his body gave in, and fed the young boy to the quicksand. Flailing around desperately, Adrian threw the ball onto the sand next to Heather, and tried to feel around for a piece of solid ground. Ayesha rushed to the edge of the quicksand, frantically calling for help, and reached for the young boy's hand. Adrian was now buried in the quicksand up to his neck. Heather, too afraid to approach the sticky substance for fear of being consumed, stayed about three metres away, and watched.

Ayesha glanced over her shoulder, and screamed at Heather to help her, as Adrian's head was submerged. Heather just shook her head, and stood where she was in a state of shock, clutching the small rubber ball as Adrian was engulfed completely by the quicksand. Ayesha scrambled away from the deadly pool, and broke down in tears. When Heather approached her, and moved her hand to rest on the younger girl's shoulder, Ayesha slapped it off, stood up and glared at the future Air Queen. "How could you do that? Heath, you just stood there! Now Adrian's gone! All for that stupid ball of yours!" Ayesha yelled, tears streaming down her face. Suddenly, Heather's sympathetic look turned into one of hurt, and then contorted into a mask of pure hatred. "You don't know! You don't know anything, four eyes! This ball is worth killing Adrian over! You don't know where I got it! You don't know anything!" She shrieked.

Ayesha charged at Heather, wrestling the ball from the older girls grasp, and then ripping it to shreds with her bare hands. Heather gasped, tears forming in her eyes, as she pushed Ayesha with as much force as she could muster. Ayesha returned her attack with a violent blow to Heather's cheek, which knocked her unconscious. The last thing I saw in that memory was Ayesha drop to the floor, and sobbing hopelessly. Then, the whole image began to blur, as Alistair regained consciousness.

After blinking a few times, I found myself back in the mountain cave with Alistair sitting in front of me, and Ayesha, who had silent tears running down her cheeks. I still didn't know who Adrian was, but I thought after seeing that, it probably wasn't such a good idea to ask Ayesha. But we must have been thinking the same thing, because she choked back a sob as she began to speak, "Adrian… He was my twin brother, Lloyd." Realization settled in, as I realized that she had just watched a memory of her brother dying a brutal death. Without another word, I pulled Ayesha into another hug, but this time, she returned it with both arms, and buried her tear-stained face in my shoulder.

We stayed like that for a few minutes, until Reva made an indignant noise from behind us. I smiled at the Viperion, and helped Ayesha up yet again, before seating myself on Reva's back, as Ayesha did the same for Sherwyn. Allie trotted behind us, as we slowly made our way back to the Destiny's Bounty. But something kept nagging at me, from the back of my mind. Who had possessed Ayesha, and why?

A.N: That's my longest chapter yet! I hope you guys liked it! Also, bookworm108 and I are writing a Christmas Ninjago Truth or Dare fic called Merry Freaking Christmas and a Ninjago New Year. If you could read and review it, it would be great! Remember: I FEED ON REVIEWS!


	7. Chapter 7

A.N: Hey guys! This chapter is dedicated to bookworm108! Thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter! This one is from Jayde's POV. Hope you like this one, and don't forget to review!

**_Jayde_**

When Cole said that I was paired with Kai, I was excited, and yet I was also really nervous. What if I did something embarrassing, or Kai found someone else, or lost interest? I don't really know what it is, but whenever I'm around him, it just feels right. I feel like I belong with him. The question is, though, does he feel the same way?

"Jayde and Kai, you two check Ashikiga Village." Cole instructed us. We both nodded, and when I saw Kai out of my peripheral vision, I could have sworn he was blushing. Then, Ayesha and Heather began fighting again. Heather called down Angel, her Pegasus, and Ayesha summoned Sherwyn and Reva, which was a bit cruel of her. See, Heather hates Viperion, because one killed her mother when she was younger.

I just didn't understand how there could be so much hatred between those two. I know what happened all those years ago, and I felt really bad for Ayesha. She and Adrian always did everything together. They were like the ideal pair of twins; where one had weaknesses, the other had strengths. For instance, while Adrian was quite quick on his feet, while Ayesha was the slowest out of us. Ayesha was very intelligent and was a brilliant strategic, but Adrian would just rush into things without thinking. They were so similar, and yet, so different.

Snapping back to reality, as Lloyd and Ayesha zoomed off on Reva and Sherwyn, I looked over at Kai. "Do you want to take my Blade Cycle?" Kai offered. I smiled to myself. "No," I began, "I have something better." With that, I snapped my fingers, and waited for the familiar screech of Ceria, my Griffin. Sure enough, Ceria flew in from the Northwest, and landed in front of me, nuzzling her beak into my outstretched palm. I turned to face Kai, who was gaping at the lion-eagle hybrid in amazement.

"Come on!" I urged him, "Ceria's really friendly! Just get on her back like this!" Ceria knelt down, and I swung a leg over her furry back. Kai approached us slowly, and followed my example, sitting in front of me. "Now just hold onto her neck feathers, and I'll grab the reins." I explained. I looped my arms under Kai's and held the soft leather reins in my hands. "Are you ready?" I asked him, excitedly. "As I'll ever be, I guess." He replied nervously. Without another word, I urged Ceria forward at a walking pace. Then, I pressed my heels into her flanks a little harder, as she broke into a run, outstretched her wings and took to the skies.

We flew on, towards a small town that I assumed was Ashikaga Village. On the way, though, we saw Ayesha and Lloyd at the base of the mountains with Reva and Sherwyn. I waved at them, now only holding the reins with my left hand. Kai noticed this, and panicked, "Hold onto the reins! We'll fall!" I could only giggle at his worried expression as he twisted around to face me, and squeeze him around the waist reassuringly, which made him blush scarlet red.

I pulled Ceria in for a landing right next to the village, using a death dive to do so. When we were freefalling, Kai let out a shout of joy, and all too soon, my Griffin touched the ground, and slowed from a run to a slow walk, to a complete stop. "Well, that was a little different." Kai pointed, his light brown hair disheveled from the wind, and his caramel eyes shining with anticipation. I slid off Ceria's back and pulled Kai off with me. Leading him by the hand, I tugged Kai into the village with me.

There was something off about this small town, though. It was too quiet, and no one was outside. "Hey," Kai began, "Something's not right here." I nodded in agreement, as we approached the largest house in the village, which we assumed would belong to the headman. Kai knocked on the door, only to receive no reply, or acknowledgement. So I stepped forward, and opened the door, to reveal a family of six; two adults who I assumed to be the parents and four children, huddled under an overturned table.

When we approached them, the man pulled out a rifle, and demanded in a shaky voice, "Leave us alone! We've given you everything we have!" Kai and I both held our hands in the air in a surrender gesture. Who had been threatening the people of the village? "Don't worry," I soothed, "we're not here to hurt you. We're just trying to figure out what's wrong here." That seemed to relax the family a little. The man put down his rifle, but still looked at us with a wary look. "Thank goodness… We thought we would have to stay in lockdown in here until we died of starvation." He relieved.

"So, what actually happened here?" Kai asked curiously. The woman lifted her head up a little, and began to speak, "We were just living normally, until about three days ago, when a hooded man marched into our village with an army." One of the young boys interrupted his mother, "Yeah, they had these big black wolves, and they had scary elephants too!" he whimpered, snuggling into his sister.

"A hooded man?" Kai asked, "Did you see what he looked like?" The man shook his head, and proceeded to say, "The only thing anyone saw were his glowing, red eyes."

Kai frowned at this, and muttered to himself, "Sounds like Garmadon… But it can't be him…" I furrowed my eyebrows, confused, but dismissed it and decided to ask him later. "What happened after they invaded your village?" I questioned the family. "Well," the man spoke, "They broke into all our houses, took all our food, water and belongings, and if anyone tried to do anything to stop it, they would be killed. We had to stay inside our houses, and they all stood guard outside. If they let you in without a fight, please, be careful. It could be a trap."

A cold feeling washed over me. A trap. Kai and I had walked straight into a trap. Suddenly, the doors banged open, and several men in black and red uniforms burst in. They all had gun blades, currently pointed at us. "Oh shoot." Kai vocalized. I could only nod in agreement, as the soldiers advanced on us; fingers ready to pull the triggers. I shut my eyes and clung to Kai, bracing myself for the impact of a thousand bullets embedding themselves in my skull. But it never came. I opened my eyes to see that the soldiers had been suspended in the air by thick, green vines, and the very earth beneath them was swallowing up their guns.

I smiled to myself in relief. Sometimes, being the Queen of Nature has its advantages. See, while the other three Queens had easily been able to harness and control their powers, mine only really came to me when they felt like it; when I was really in trouble.

Concentrating with all my might, I urged the vines to coil tighter around the men. By now, the guns had been fully consumed, and were no longer visible. The soldiers were gasping for breath as their lungs collapsed in on themselves. To my surprise, one of them began to speak in a thin, raspy voice, "The Dark One will avenge us…" before he and all his companions simultaneously collapsed into piles of fine, black dust.

"Well that's attractive." I mentioned, sarcastically. The family that was still huddled beneath the table stared at Kai and I in amazement. "How did you do that? Are you a goddess?" asked the youngest girl in awe. I smiled, and knelt down in front of her. "No, I'm not a goddess. Have you heard of the Prophecy of Nine?" I asked her. She nodded her head, and then a look of realization dawned on her face. "You're the Nature Queen!" She exclaimed incredulously. I nodded to her.

"Hey, Jayde," Kai called me from the door of the house, "In case you haven't noticed, we kind of have a village to save!" he nagged, with a grin. I stood up, and walked out the door beside him, with one backward glance over my shoulder at the family. When we walked out, the sight of three soldiers greeted us with their gun blades aimed at us. Of course, Kai and I expected something like this; the soldiers weren't going to give in that easily.

These soldiers looked a bit different though. Their uniforms were more impressive, and rather than having one stripe on their shoulders, these men had three. I had a feeling this wasn't going to be easy. Luckily, I still had my powers intact, and I shot vines towards one of the men. Before I could stop him, though, he sliced through the vines, inflicting a sharp mental pain. I cried out in pain as I clutched my head, which was still recovering from the vines being destroyed. My powers probably weren't the best way to do this, then.

Kai, after seeing me get injured launched himself into battle with the soldier, leaving me to deal with the other two. I reached behind my shoulder for my bow, and drew an arrow, aiming it at one of the soldiers, who strangely wasn't moving. I shrugged to myself, and released the arrow so that it would strike the soldier in the forehead, but it never hit. He darted out of the way so fast that I didn't even see him move, and fired his gun blade. I ducked the bullet, and moved in to place a kick to his stomach, which, thank goodness, landed perfectly, when the other soldier who I had successfully forgotten about moved in to attack me.

At that moment, Kai entered the scene, and stabbed the first soldier from behind, reducing him to the thin, black powder we had seen before. Now only one soldier remained, seeing as Kai had already destroyed the other one. Together, we attacked him from both sides to confuse and distract him. As he went to block Kai's sword with his gun blade, I managed to use my powers once more to wrap the man in thick vines, which he could not escape from. I then urged the vines to drag the soldier below the ground; drowned in the earth.

I looked over to smile at Kai, but I noticed he had both his hands clamped around a wound on the side of his ribs. I flinched inwardly; there was a lot of blood, and he would probably faint if I didn't do something soon. Begging my powers to work again, I wordlessly placed my hands over Kai's, and squeezed my eyes shut in concentration. Kai was just staring at me in pain and confusion, as we were both engulfed with a light brown glow. I felt the energy draining from my body as I watched Kai's wound rapidly healing.

When there was no blood staining Kai's side, I cut off the energy flow, and began to swoon from the sudden loss of energy. Luckily, before I collapsed, Kai caught me in his arms; the last thing I saw before I blacked out was the concerned and worried look that had plastered itself on his face.

I opened my eyes slowly, slightly squinting at the bright lighting. I glanced around me quickly; I was in the house of the family we had talked to a few minutes ago. At least, it felt like a few minutes ago. How long had I been here? In answer to my silent question, the little girl I had last talked to steadily approached my side, and informed me, "Oh, you're awake! Finally, you've been asleep for like, an hour. The red guy brought you in here. He seemed pretty worried, and he keeps coming in every five seconds to see if you're awake." As if on cue, Kai burst through the door.

"Is she awake? Wait, she is awake! Jayde! Why did you do that? You could have gotten yourself seriously hurt!" he reprimanded me, coming to sit next to me. "Well, I kind of had to, otherwise you would have passed out." I reasoned. He just shook his head, and said softly, "You really scared me, Jayde." I felt bad, after he said that, and reached up to hug him, which he wholeheartedly returned. When we pulled apart, I swung my legs over the side of the bed I was lying on, and stood up, stretching out all my joints with a yawn.

"Thanks for bringing me here," I thanked Kai, and reached up to kiss him on the cheek. He just muttered something like 'you're welcome', while scratching the back of his head self-consciously, staring at the floor, and blushing crimson red. I giggled at his behavior, and skipped out of the room, to thank the family that had so kindly taken care of me.

They were all sitting together, laughing and talking when Kai and I walked in. It warmed my heart to see a family so cheerful together. "Thank you for taking care of me," I began, when I was interrupted by the mother.

"No, thank you for saving us. If it weren't for you, we would most likely be dead by now. While you were unconscious, Kai helped us to recover all our belongings and food from the storage area that had been heavily guarded before. We owe our lives to you two." She finished, with a grateful smile.

I nodded to her and her husband, and Kai and I left the house to find Ceria and return to the Destiny's Bounty and tell the others everything we found. When we got outside the boundaries of the village, I heard a familiar screech of joy, as Ceria bounded towards us, and nuzzled her head against both Kai and I. I laughed as Kai tentatively reached out a hand to pet the Griffin's razor sharp beak.

"Come on, Kai!" I told him, "We need to get back! You can't spend all day playing with Ceria!" He looked disappointed when I said this, which only served to make me laugh even more as he slid onto the Griffin's back, behind me this time. I twisted my shoulders around to face him, confused. "I want to drive, this time!" he demanded playfully. I just giggled, and joked, "Well, I hope you're a quick learner!" He just grinned at me, and pushed Ceria into a sprint, as he prepared for her takeoff.

Ceria leapt into the air with feline grace, and glided through the air with agility and speed that could only be matched by a bird. Yep, I loved my Griffin. Kai switched the reins so that they were only in one hand, and wrapped the other arm loosely around my waist, which, believe it or not, made me blush lightly. We stayed like that for a while; soaring through the air, without a single care in the world.

I was almost upset when the Bounty came back into view, and we had to land again. No one was back yet; we were the first ones there. But what worried me was that Ayesha had left Alistair on the ship to guard it, but he was nowhere to be seen. I decided to ask Kai about it. "Kai, shouldn't Alistair be here?" Kai nodded, and did a 360 sweep of the area. "Nothing seems to be wrong, though." He commented. So, we walked into the ship, and decided just to watch TV.

But no matter how hard I tried; I couldn't help but wonder if everyone else was all right. Dismissing the negative thoughts from my mind, I wriggled a little closer to Kai, and tried to focus on the screen, as I sighed to myself. This was going to be quite a long wait.

A.N: That was a short chapter… Next up will be Heather and Leah! Remember to review!


	8. Chapter 8

A.N: Hey guys! Sooo sorry for the long wait! I was on holiday, and then I just got lazy ;)This chapter will be from Heather's POV… Remember to review!

**_Heather_**

"Heather and Leah, you can check the Dark Forest." When Cole said that, I swear my heart stopped. The Dark Forest. The place that changed my life for the worst. Snapping myself out of my memories, I looked around for where the Dark Forest was from where I was. Luckily it wasn't too far. I couldn't say the same for Ayesha, though.

"Well, how are you going to get there, 'Queen' Ayesha? I know I've got my method straight!" I smirked at her, pulling my glass flute from my bag and summoning Angel, my Pegasus. To say that Angel's landing was impressive would be a massive understatement. She soared down from the clouds, only to gracefully make contact with the ground, and canter over to me. Fondly, I brushed Angel's muzzle with the palm of my hand, as I asked the Queen of Shadow, "Well, what have you got, Ayesha?"

She turned to me, a confident smirk plastered on her face, as she raised her index finger and thumb to her lips, only to release a loud, sharp whistle. I had heard that whistle many times before. I knew what was coming. The Viperion. The monsters that killed my mother so many years ago. Clenching my teeth together and standing up straight, I braced myself for what was to come.

Trying to distract myself, I rubbed Angel's back, and trotted her around the group. But alas, my distraction did not work. My eyes were immediately drawn to the sky as it darkened to a colour of almost black, and large storm clouds began rolling in. I shut my eyes to attempt to block out everything that was going on around me, but I still heard the rumble of thunder, and the earsplitting crack of the earth fissuring next to me.

A few seconds later, I opened my eyes to see the two demon creatures standing next to their mistress, who was grinning at me like an evil maniac. I mustered a glare back at her, while demanding, "G-get those things away from me!" In another attempt to block out the two dragon-like creatures, I turned away from Ayesha, and closed my eyes, blocking out every sound, every movement; everything.

Meditation was something I had learnt a long time ago; it was something I always used when I found myself faced with conflicting or strong emotions. I first tried it when my mother died, and I found that it helped me clear all the negative thoughts from my mind. I breathed in deeply again, before opening my eyes.

What had felt like a few seconds, in reality was in fact several minutes, as I found that Ayesha, Lloyd, Jayde, Kai and the two dragon creatures were all gone. I smiled to myself as I swung my left leg over Angel's flank, motioning for Leah to find some form of transportation. Leah nodded at me, spread her palms, and formed a large cloud, just big enough for her to stand on.

I had always thought, as a child, that I would be the only one able to summon clouds, being an air elemental. Turns out that because they're made of water vapor, Leah could summon them as well.

I nodded at the water elemental as we took to the skies, the loud beating of Angel's wings filling my ears. I glanced at the land rushing past below me; we weren't flying very high, maybe 4-5 metres from the ground. The Dark Forest was close, though. I could see it about a kilometer away; and at the speeds we were travelling, we would be there in about a minute. I made myself more comfortable on Angel's back, as I began to remember the events of the past; the day my mother died in the very forest we were travelling to.

I was ten years old, and I had never left the Air Kingdom. I had wanted to go to Ninjago ever since I could remember, and my mother was finally going to take me for a late birthday present. Earlier that week, we'd had several messages from the Shadow Empire, informing us that one of their Viperion had broken free, and was running rampage. They hadn't been able to find out even which kingdom it was in, and were asking everyone to look out for it, and try to bring it back.

But anyway, my mother and I left early in the morning so that we would have as much time as possible in Ninjago. We travelled there using Angel, who was still a baby, and Sunlight, my mother's Pegasus. We landed near Ashikaga Village; the one that Jayde and Kai had been assigned to check. We had dismounted there, and allowed the two pegasi to follow us around. My mother and I spent most of the day in the village, shopping around in the market, and talking to the villagers.

After about an hour, however, I spotted a large dark shape dashing behind a building. Curious, I left my mother, who didn't notice I left, and approached the shape, only to find that it was the Viperion that the Shadow Empire had lost. The scaly beast was crouched behind a house, chewing a piece of wood. I immediately felt bad for it; the creature was obviously starving. So, without thinking twice, I reached into my bag, and brought out a small bit of meat that my mother and I had bought earlier.

But when I offered the meat to the reptile, it recoiled while hissing harshly and baring its fangs. The next thing I knew, it was running at what looked like the speed of light towards the Dark Forest. I knew I had to go after it; the Shadow Empire had been looking for it for months. So I sped after it, not managing to keep up, but following the Viperion's tracks.

Soon enough, I found myself totally lost in the forest. The tracks had disappeared long ago; replaced by a thick undergrowth of leaves and twigs. I could feel tears pooling in the corners of my eyes, as I realized the magnitude of the situation. I called out to my mother, but no reply was heard. I flopped down onto the floor in hopelessness, and let the tears flow freely from my eyes.

Suddenly, I heard a twig snap behind me. I gasped, and whirled around, desperately scrambling around in the leaves, trying to stand up. I looked around me frantically, not able to see anything but the twisted shapes of trees and the thick layer of fog surrounding me. I then saw a silhouette in the mist; the Viperion. It was hungry, and what better to eat than a living, breathing creature. The Viperion was hunting me. I was going to die.

The deadly reptilian beast leapt at me from the shadows, as I shut my eyes and braced for the impact of knife-like teeth sinking into my flesh. But it never came. I snapped my eyes open as I heard an earsplitting scream slice through the air like an arrow. The Viperion was dead; its scaly flank had been sliced open, and it was lying on its side. What really caught my attention was the woman clamped firmly in its steely jaws. My mother.

I fell down next to her, desperately calling her name; trying to bring her back to me. I looked into her eyes; glassy and emotionless. Suddenly, my mother's Platinum Gauntlet of Air, now stained with the bright red blood of her killer, floated off her hand, and began to glow. I knew what this meant. My mother was not coming back. I was now the Queen of Air.

"Heather! Heather, are you okay?" I snapped out of my thoughts as I heard Leah's concerned voice. "Yeah… I'm fine. Just… Thinking is all." I replied. I noticed that we had landed near the tree line of the Dark Forest. I steeled my resolve; what was in the past, would remain in the past. Nothing bad was going to happen this time. "Okay," Leah began, sounding as if she didn't believe my excuse, "We should go check it out in there." She reasoned. I nodded silently, carefully eyeing the ever-present layer of thick fog seeping out of the forest.

Noticing my discomfort with the fog, wordlessly, Leah waved her hand to clear the dense blanket of water vapor. I smiled at her gratefully; this eased some of my uneasiness. I held my head high, and strode confidently into the forest, Leah trailing behind me. As soon as we passed the boundary between my past and my present, I heard hushed voices to my left. Apparently Leah heard them too, as she motioned for me to stay silent and follow her.

Usually, I wouldn't let anyone lead me, but in this damned place, I was more than happy to oblige, as I followed Leah like a shadow. We approached a small clearing, where we laid eyes on a small gathering of soldiers dressed in red and black; the impersonations of the Shadow Empire's army.

"The Dark One told us to wait here for further instructions!" one of them cried insistently. The Dark One? Who was The Dark One? "I know what he said!" Another one replied, "But didn't you feel it? Seven grunts and three admirals; the ones at Ashikaga Village. All three Admirals! They're dead!" Ashikaga Village; that was where Jayde and Kai were! I could only hope that they hadn't been hurt.

Leah glanced over at me in worry, as if to say, 'Should we stay and listen more?' I thought for a second, and nodded to her. It was our job to get information on the force that was threatening Ninjago. Besides, despite my hatred for Ayesha, I was curious and determined to know why on earth someone would dare to imitate her army.

"Those kids are tougher than they look." Another soldier piped up from the back of the group, "I mean, a lot of people can't even defeat one admiral, let alone three!" he continued, completely unaware of the irritated stares of his fellow soldiers. When he finally became aware of his teammates' annoyance, he trailed off in his rambling, and suddenly became very interested in his feet. The next few minutes were spent in silence, when finally one of the soldiers mentioned something about beer, and the entire camp broke into conversation.

I shook my head in exasperation. Men. I tapped Leah on the shoulder, signaling that it would probably be a good time to leave. She nodded in reply, as we silently backtracked out of the forest, and out into the open. "Do you think Kai and Jayde need our help?" She questioned worriedly. I shook my head. Even though Jayde didn't have full control over her powers, she was quite dangerous when threatened. And Kai was a trained ninja. They would be fine.

"I'm sure they're okay. Those soldiers were talking about how they killed those admirals and the seven others. In fact, they're probably back at the Bounty by now!" I reasoned. This seemed to calm her down, as Leah sighed with relief, and turned her icy blue eyes to my chocolate brown ones. "We should probably head back." She told me, "You know, to see if they're safe and back at the Bounty." I nodded, as I mounted Angel once again, and Leah formed another cloud.

We travelled back in silence, both thinking about Jayde and Kai. As we flew towards the Destiny's Bounty, Leah called out to me, "Hey, Heather! There's Ayesha and Lloyd! And I think that's Alistair!" I groaned inwardly, as I looked over Angel's flank to see Ayesha and Lloyd riding their Viperion, with Alistair trotting obediently at Ayesha's side.

Why were they going so slowly? Viperion were well known and renowned for their near impossible running speeds! Something wasn't right. "Leah, I think we should land and walk back with them." I informed her. Leah looked at me in shock; obviously wondering why on earth I would jump at the opportunity to be around Ayesha. Reluctantly, she nodded, and we began a steady descent.

As we touched the ground, I noticed immediately that something had definitely happened in the mountains. Both Ayesha and Lloyd looked exhausted; they were disheveled and messy, as if they had been in a bad fight; and lost. Even Alistair looked weary. "Ayesha! Lloyd! Are you guys okay? You look terrible!" I asked, genuinely concerned. A look of spite crossed Ayesha's face, followed by one of confusion. Probably wondering why I was being civil to her.

"Yeah… We're fine now." Lloyd reassured us. Ayesha turned back towards us and spoke in a soft voice, "Something was in those mountains, guys. I was possessed by something. I attacked Lloyd, and Alistair had to use his abilities to knock me out of it." She finished. I gasped in shock, as I comprehended what she had just said. Alistair used his abilities on a human? That could have killed him! No wonder he looked so wrecked.

"Are you sure you're both alright? Are you sure you aren't hurt?" Leah fretted, doing a quick visual check for wounds. "We're fine! Just a little tired, is all." Ayesha assured her, as Lloyd nodded in agreement. Leah seemed to be satisfied with Ayesha's explanation, as she quickly nodded her head once, and continued walking beside the Shadow Queen.

"Did you two discover anything new?" Lloyd asked Leah and I. We both nodded our heads, and proceeded to inform the Green Ninja and the shadow elemental of everything we had overheard at the camp. "We found a campsite in the Dark Forest," Leah began, "And we overheard them talking!" I nodded in agreement, only to continue, "They mentioned that 'The Dark One' told them to stay where they were, and that seven grunts and three admirals had been killed in Ashikaga Village. So Leah and I think that Jayde and Kai must have killed those ten soldiers, and we're hoping that they're back, safe in the Bounty." I concluded.

"The Dark One?" Lloyd asked, "Weird name…" he concluded. Ayesha froze for a minute, before shaking her head and muttering to herself, "No, that's not possible…" I frowned to myself. Something was going on with Ayesha. But what?

A.N: Does Ayesha know The Dark One? What will happen to Zane, Cole and Jay in the Chandra Caves? Remember to review, guys!


	9. Author's Note

A.N: Yeah, I know, I hate ANs too… But I thought I should let you guys know that I'm putting this story on hiatus for the moment, for the simple reason that I'll be going back to school soon, and I won't have enough time to be able to update and write everything. My guess is that I'll be able to update once a week at most :( But, nothing much I can do about that, I'm afraid.

Anyway, once I get out of school again, or finish my other fic, The Legion (whichever comes first), I'll take this one off hiatus, but otherwise… Sorry guys :( Just to be clear, though, I will DEFINITELY continue this one, just not right now.

But if you do want something to read while TPo9 is out of business, check out The Legion (by me!) or The Other Ninja, by bookworm108. She's a really awesome author, and I highly recommend taking a look at her stuff :)

So, once again, I'm really sorry about this, but I'll get it back up and running as soon as I can ;)

BlackWolfRises


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